TAS Offshore Finds IPO Success

Riding on improved sentiments in the global equity markets, we have witnessed a number of public equity placements, mainly in the form of new shares placements or rights issues. Companies are seizing the window of opportunity to re-capitalise and strengthen their balance sheets in order to better prepare themselves for the uncertainties ahead. Malaysian export-oriented shipbuilder TAS Offshore has successfully sold 77 million new shares, or 42.8% of the enlarged capital and paid up share capital, at RM 0.90 a piece and raised RM 69.3 million (USD 19.8 million) on the Bursa Malaysia Stock Exchange.

This makes TAS Offshore the third shipping company to have found success in the IPO markets since the beginning of this year after Singapore’s Yujin International and Taiwan’s China Shipbuilding Corporation. Gone are the good old days when investors had a large appetite for shipbuilders, but the successful listing of TAS Offshore despite its small size, demonstrates that there are still pockets of liquidity waiting to be tapped. The public retail tranche of 9 million for the Malaysian public was oversubscribed by 19.47 times. Kudos goes to OSK investment Bank for bringing the Sarawak based shipbuilder to the stock market in a maiden debut at 5% premium to its offer price. OSK Investment Bank has also played an important role in underwriting 52 million new shares under the public issue to facilitate the success of this offering.

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