KUALA LUMPUR: Convenience retailing company Bison Consolidated Bhd plans to raise RM88.68mil from its initial public offering (IPO), the bulk of which would be used for capital expenditure.
It said on Friday this IPO would comprise of 80.62 million new shares of 20 sen each at an indicative retail price of RM1.10 per share.
The IPO comprises of an institutional offering of 62.31 million shares of which 31.306 million shares would be offered to Malaysian institutions and selected investors through a book building exercise. The other 31.01 million shares would be offered to Bumiputera institutional and selected investors at the institutional price.
Bison said its retail offering of 18.30 million IPO shares comprised of 15.50 million shares to the Malaysian public; and 2.80 million shares would be made available to the eligible directors, employees and persons who have contributed to the success of Bison and its subsidiaries.
Through its subsidiaries, Bison is involved in the business of press and convenience retailing under its main trade name of “myNEWS.com”.
Bison is the second largest retail convenience store industry player in Malaysia with an estimated market share of 8.6% in terms of outlet numbers and 6.6% in terms of revenue in 2015.
Bison group managing director Dang Tai Luk said: “We have plans to invest approximately RM50mil of our IPO proceeds to expand our network of outlets and enhance our existing outlets in order to meet the growing demands from our customers.
“We will also use RM14.45mil of this IPO proceeds to invest in business functions and our back-end operations to improve and establish nationwide logistics and IT capabilities to support our growing network and product base.
“About RM32.23mil of our IPO proceeds will be utilised as working capital to finance inventory stocking for our new and existing outlets as well as our other working capital requirements,” he said.
Dang added that being listed on Bursa Malaysia will be a major milestone for the group which has come a long way since the establishment of its first outlet in 1996.
CIMB Investment Bank Bhd is the principal adviser, managing underwriter and sole bookrunner.
BISON (5275) - Retail store operator Bison to raise RM88.68mil from IPO
http://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2016/03/04/retail-store-operator-bison-to-raise-rm88mil-from-ipo/
