Companies rush to list as Sept ends

20 firms now have preliminary prospectuses lodged with MAS

By CHEN HUIFEN
AND KENNETH LIM

' Popiah King' Sam Goi showed up with a China ice-cream venture, while Junma Tyre Cord Co reappeared after withdrawing in August this year. Lead manager ABN Amro Rothschild offered its first IPO in Singapore this year, while Phillip Capital unveiled its first two for 2004.

Meanwhile, Alantac Technology finalised its IPO details in hopes of raising $3.6 million in net proceeds.

In all, 20 companies now have preliminary prospectuses lodged with the Monetary Authority of Singapore - 16 of them within the past two weeks. Another three, including Alantac, have launched IPOs while a fourth, Shanghai Asia Holdings, makes its mainboard debut today. That's almost half the 50 IPOs that listed in the first nine months of the year.

One merchant banker said some of the companies with December year-ends may be rushing to file their documents before the nine-month deadline beyond which they will have to perform another audit review of their results.

Alantac, an electronics precision machining company, is offering 21.5 million shares at 21 cents apiece, split into 1 million public offer shares and 20.5 million placement shares. The IPO is priced at 7.5 times Alantac's $2.5 million net profit for the year ended March 31, 2004 .

Just as Singapore works towards its goal of becoming a biomedical hub, Alantac wants to expand into the medical and optical equipment sector and reduce its dependency on the semiconductor and hard disk drive industries.

Its current customers include Hewlett Packard, Kinergy, Kulicke & Soffa and Maxtor Peripherals.

Alantac will use about $2 million of its proceeds for a new 2,000-2,500 sq ft Suzhou plant expected to be operational by the first half of 2005.

Another $1.5 million will be used for new machinery at its existing Singapore plant. Chief operating officer Yap Tiong Wah said demand for precision machining services in Singapore will still be buoyant going by recent announcements by manufacturers here.

Alantac's IPO closes on Oct 7, and trading on Sesdaq is expected to start Oct 11. Westcomb Capital is the lead manager.

Meanwhile, Shanghai Asia's IPO of 129.8 million shares at 28 cents apiece makes its debut today after closing 2.1 times subscribed. Its 6.5 million public offer shares attracted $41.8 million in application monies.

The eight companies that lodged their preliminary documents yesterday are:

· Youcan Foods International. With Mr Goi, the prominent food magnate behind the Tee Yih Jia frozen food brand, as a 20 per cent pre-IPO investor, Youcan wants to raise funds for sales and marketing, expanding production capacity and buying new equipment. The China-based frozen food and ice cream maker had 20.4 million yuan in net profit in FY2003. Mr Goi, who will not be selling his shares in the IPO, said he expects possible collaborations between Youcan and his own Tee Yih Jia business. DBS Bank is the lead manager.

· Junma Tyre Cord Co. The tyre component supplier withdrew its application in August to update its prospectus, but returned yesterday with two significant changes. In the new prospectus, Junma warned that profit in FY2004 will be lower than FY2003's 59.9 million yuan net earnings because of the high costs of its main oil-derived raw material. Lead manager Stirling Coleman said the warning was intended to help investors make better informed decisions.

The company has also entered into a call option deal that is expected to increase its steel tyre cord production capacity. Junma hopes to raise at least $15.2 million through an offer of 9.2 million public offer shares and 82.8 million placement shares.

· Singapore-headquartered Petra Foods is a global manufacturer and supplier of cocoa ingredients to companies like Nestle, Cadbury and the Mars Group. Its IPO will be used to fund capacity expansion and strategic investments or alliances. Petra 's net profit for the six months ended June 2004 was US$9 million, and it plans to declare about US$3 million in further dividends for the year ending December. Petra is ABN Amro's first IPO this year in Singapore .

· Comat Industrial plans to raise at least $6.6 million to repay bank loans, develop products and grow its markets. The China-based aluminium panelmaker had a 38.2 million yuan net profit in FY2003 and an order book of about 25 million yuan expected to be fulfilled this year. GK Goh is the lead manager.

· Southern Packaging Group will offer 41 million new shares and 18 million vendor shares to build a new plant and equipment as well as repay loans. The China-based plastic packaging specialist had $7.2 million in net profit for FY2003, and plans to pay 20 to 30 per cent of profit after tax in dividends in the future. GK Goh is the lead manager.

· Swissco International is a marine logistics and shiprepair and maintenance company raising funds to buy three new vessels. The Singapore-based Sesdaq aspirant had $4.1 million in net profit in FY2003. Phillip Capital is the lead manager.

· Oriental Food Holdings hopes to raise at least $2.7 million to expand its production capacity. The China-based peanut-products maker had net profit of 11.8 million yuan in FY2003, and plans to share at least 40 per cent of net profit after tax for the year ending December 2004. Phillip Capital is its lead manager.

· Sinobest Technology Holdings is a China-based IT solution provider. Its IPO proceeds will be used to repay bank loans, train staff and expand its business and support networks. The company made 31.4 million yuan in net profit in FY2003, and has outstanding orders worth 152.2 million yuan. Westcomb Capital is the lead manager.