ACE MARKET-BOUND ORIENTAL KOPI PLANS TO RAISE RM184 MLN FROM IPO

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 6 (Bernama) -- Food and beverage (F&B) services cafe chain operator Oriental Kopi Holdings Bhd, en route to a listing on Bursa Malaysia’s ACE Market, aims to raise RM184 million through its initial public offering (IPO).

The IPO share price is set at 44 sen each and the listing is scheduled for Jan 23, 2025.

The group said RM75.78 million or 41.2 per cent of the proceeds would be utilised for working capital; RM53.69 million (29.2 per cent) to set up its new head office, central kitchen and warehouse at Selangor; RM36.40 million (19.8 per cent) for cafe chain expansion in Malaysia; RM5.5 million (3.0 per cent) for marketing activities in foreign countries; RM5 million (2.7 per cent) for expansion of the packaged food segment and RM7.6 million (4.1 per cent) for listing expenses.

Executive director Sean Koay Song Leng said the new operational facility on 108,448 square feet in Puchong, Selangor would centralise its management functions, optimise F&B operations, enhance storage and distribution efficiency.

"We came up with this centralised kitchen to minimise the kitchen operation at current outlets, because some of the outlets have very small kitchens.

"So we wanted to reduce the workload at the kitchen itself and shift it to a central kitchen to produce the food, instead of at the (outlet) kitchen, but our final preparation is still done in the outlet kitchen itself," he told a press conference after Oriental Kopi’s prospectus launch here today.

Koay, however, did not disclose the percentage of workload minimised at the outlet's kitchen after setting up the centralised kitchen.

Since its incorporation in December 2020, Oriental Kopi has established a network of 19 owned and operated cafes in Malaysia and a jointly owned and operated cafe in Singapore.

These cafes are strategically located in various settings, including shopping malls, shop lots and KL International Airport 2 retail mall, including a specialty retail store in St Giles. Southkey Hotel, Johor Bahru.

Commenting on the cafe chain expansion, Koay said the company aimed to open 13 outlets in Malaysia this year.

He said the group planned to open two more cafes in Singapore by 2025.

"We also planned to expand our business to the neighbouring countries," he said.

Based on the enlarged share capital of 2 billion ordinary shares, Oriental Kopi is expected to have an indicative market capitalisation of RM880 million.

Oriental Kopi said the IPO would offer 418.1 million ordinary shares, 60 million shares would be available to the Malaysian public via balloting; 20 million shares to its eligible directors, employees as well as persons who have contributed to the success of the group; 88.1 million shares by way of private placement to selected investors.

"The remaining 250 million IPO shares will be made available by way of private placements to bumiputera investors approved by the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry," it said in a statement.

Applications for the public issue are open from today and will close on Jan 10, 2025, at 5 pm.

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

-- BERNAMA