PETALING JAYA: Bursa Malaysia Bhd recorded an increase of 16.67% to 35 initial public offerings (IPO) this year compared with 30 last year, bringing in RM11.15 billion market capitalisation with ACE Market peaking at 25 since inception, following the reopening of the economy as more recovered companies sought listing and anticipates the upward trend to continue into 2023.
“In the current global business climate, these companies have brought a commendable RM11.15 billion market capitalisation to Bursa Malaysia. Three of these listings have a market cap of more than RM1 billion, and 26 of these listings are priced above their IPO price,” the bourse told SunBiz.
The exchange said that across country and region, many companies and industries were impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. As the economy reopened and moved steadily towards normalisation, more companies have recovered and some have sought listing with anticipation for the trend to continue into 2023.
Since Jan 1, 2022, the exchange is the sole approving authority for ACE Market IPO and under the new regulatory framework, it has become a one-stop centre for all ACE Market IPO approvals.
The exchange said this year’s results have shown the improved efficiency of processing for ACE Market IPO.
“We had strong IPO growth in 2022 where we welcomed 35 IPO on our exchange, with 25 of these listings coming from the ACE Market. This is the most listings on this platform since the introduction of the ACE Market in 2009,” the bourse told SunBiz.
Bursa Malaysia said that while it continues to see diversity across the three markets, in terms of sectors or types of companies listing, there are a few notable sectors.
“We are seeing more companies from the consumer products and services, industrial products and services and technology sectors listed during the year,” it said.
The exchange added that there has been ongoing dialogue between various participants within the capital market, market intermediaries and government authorities to see how it can collectively make Malaysia a more attractive listing destination for technology, halal, healthcare as well as environmental, social, and corporate governance companies.
The exchange remarked that it has a healthy pipeline for 2023.
“We are targeting to release the LEAP transfer framework by (the first half of 2023) H1’23, which we believe would increase the number of IPO in the LEAP Market as these companies will have a clearer view of how they can graduate to the ACE Market.
“We believe this momentum will continue into 2023, driven primarily by the implementation of Bursa Malaysia as the one-stop centre for all ACE Market listings, together with the upcoming launch of the LEAP transfer framework.
The exchange is anticipating a total of seven IPO upcoming listings in January 2023 with one Main Market and six ACE Market listings coming to market by end-January 2023.
Meanwhile, CIMB Investment Bank Bhd CEO Jefferi Hashim said that the overall performance of the listings across the markets has been overwhelming, with Malaysian listing this year having seen more than RM3 billion raised from its total listings.
“With the average share price performance of companies post-listing averaging a gain of 57%, providing evidence of the resilience of Malaysia’s capital markets and once again proving that investors are still actively investing in Malaysian stocks.
“The ACE Market new listings’ saw an average gain of 70.3%, while the Main Market’s new listings saw an average loss of 7% – showing that investors are still looking for fundamentally-sound companies at their early stages of growth,” he told SunBiz.
On the Main Market, Jefferi said that the technology sector is the best performing sector, owing to the most recent listing of ITMAX Systems Bhd, outperforming other sectors and new listings with a gain of 29.9% (as at Dec 14).
On the other hand, the ACE Market’s new listings saw even better share price performance post-listing. The metal & steel sector saw an average post-listing gain of 238.3% to date, buoyed by SFP Tech Holding Bhd, whose share price grew 483.3% year-to-date (YTD) post-listing, the best performer across all three boards.
In terms of surprise IPO performances, he observed stellar performance in ITMAX (technology sector) and Farm Fresh Bhd’s (consumer sector) share prices, where ITMAX notched a gain of 29.9% YTD (as at Dec 14) while Farm Fresh gained 17.8%.