ACO GROUP’S IPO OVERSUBSCRIBED BY 15.53 TIMES

Kuala Lumpur, 11 March 2020 – ACO Group Berhad (“ACO Group” or “the Group”), a distributor of electrical products and accessories, has garnered good interest for its initial public offering (“IPO”), which has been oversubscribed by 15.53 times ahead of its listing on the ACE Market of Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad (“Bursa Securities”).

ACO Group distributes a total of 88 brands of electrical products and accessories, comprising 85 third party brands and 3 own brands. The Group also has a lighting concept store, namely “UR Home Light”, in Johor Bahru. Out of all the third party brands, ACO Group is an authorised distributor for 10 brands of electrical products and accessories that include Schneider Electric, KDK, Hager, Omron, ABB, Panasonic, Ledvance, Maxguard, Siemens and Yaskawa.

The Group’s listing exercise entails a public issue of 58.0 million new shares at an issue price of RM0.28, representing approximately 19.3% of its enlarged issued share capital, raising approximately RM16.2 million. Additionally, the Group has an offer for sale of 25.0 million existing shares.

ACO Group received a total of 3,261 applications for 247,975,900 new shares with a value of RM69.43 million from the Malaysian Public for the 15,000,000 new shares, representing an oversubscription rate of 15.53 times.

As for the Bumiputera portion, a total of 1,914 applications for 118,403,500 new shares were received, translating to an oversubscription rate of 14.79 times.

For the remaining public portion, a total of 1,347 applications for 129,572,400 new shares were received, representing an oversubscription rate of 16.28 times.

The 9,000,000 new shares available for eligible Directors, employees and persons who have contributed to the success of the Group have been fully subscribed.

The private placement of 4,000,000 shares available to identified investors as well as 30,000,000 shares available to Bumiputera investors approved by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (“MITI”) have also been fully subscribed.

The notices of allotment will be posted to all successful applicants on or before 17 March 2020.

ACO Group’s Group Managing Director, Ir. Tang Pee Tee @ Tan Chang Kim (陈章锦) said, “We are pleased with the encouraging response as it reflects the market’s confidence towards ACO Group’s growth prospects. We have laid a strong foundation and built a resilient business model over the last 29 years. This has paved the way for our future growth as we continually aim to “power up” the electrical products value chain in the underserved territories in Peninsular Malaysia.”

“Over the next three years, we will be expanding our presence in other towns within Johor and in other states such as Negeri Sembilan, Kelantan, Terengganu, Pulau Pinang and Pahang. We trust that with our established track record and deep industry know-how, we will be able to replicate our success in the new markets,” he concluded.

ACO Group is slated to be listed on the ACE Market of Bursa Securities on Wednesday, 18 March 2020. Upon listing on the ACE market, ACO Group will have market capitalisation of RM84.0 million based on the issue price of RM0.28 and its enlarged share capital of 300.0 million shares.

Alliance Investment Bank Berhad is the principal adviser, sponsor, sole underwriter and placement agent for the IPO exercise.