Kuala Lumpur, 27 September 2010 – Malaysia’s leading contract genomics services provider, Malaysian Genomics Resource Centre Berhad (“MGRC” or the “Company”), en-route for a listing on the ACE Market of Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad, registered an oversubscription rate of 28.7 times for its 2 million shares made available to the Malaysian public.
A total of 4,529 applications for 59.4 million shares were received from the public. Another 16.5 million shares made available for private placement and 600,000 shares for subscription by eligible directors respectively were also fully subscribed.
MGRC’s listing exercise involved a Public Issue of 17.1 million new ordinary shares, and an Offer For Sale of 2.0 million existing MGRC Shares at an offer price of RM 1.08 per share. This exercise is expected to raise RM 18.468 million.
Of the 17.1 million shares offered, 2.0 million new shares were made available for public subscription, 14.5 million new shares were allocated for private placement to selected investors, and 600,000 new shares were for eligible directors of the Company.
Of the total proceeds, RM 6.90 million is allocated for capital expenditure, of which, a significant portion of that amount will be used to purchase two units of next generation sequencing machines. Other utilization of proceeds include RM 4.57 million for working capital, RM 2.0 million for marketing expenditure, RM1.51 million for Research and Development expenditure and the balance RM 3.49 million to defray listing expenses.
Commenting on the response, Robert George Hercus @ Abdul Karim Hercus, Managing Director of MGRC said, “We are delighted with the response to our IPO from the investment community at large, and the confidence the market has in the Company. Going forward, we believe MGRC will be able to leverage its position as a listed entity to capitalize on the business opportunities that present themselves in the genomics and bioinformatics space.”
The implied market capitalization of MGRC upon listing, based on its issue/offer price of RM1.08 a share, would be in excess of RM100 million. MGRC’s listing is expected be the first of its kind in South East Asia due to its niche market position and the high barriers of entry associated with commercial contract genomics sequencing.
MGRC is scheduled for a listing tentatively on 5 October 2010.