Pekat IPO draws record-high demand from retail investors

by BERNAMA / pic by TMR FILE

PEKAT Group Bhd, a solar photovoltaic (PV) and earthing and lightning protection specialist, has set a record for IPO demand from retail investors during its nine-day public subscription from June 2 to 10.

Pekat said the IPO has attracted RM794.5 million money chasing after only RM10.3 million worth of its public portion shares on sale.

“The 32.2 million new shares made available for the Malaysian public was oversubscribed by 76 times, after a total of 34,963 applications for 2.5 billion shares were received,” it said in a statement yesterday.

Pekat said the RM794.5 million subscription amount received was the highest since 2019, surpassing the previous records set by Volcano Bhd and Flexidynamic Holdings Bhd, which pulled in RM512.8 million and RM444.9 million respectively in subscription earlier this year.

“The Bumiputera portion of shares was oversubscribed by 44 times, after a total of 13,168 applications for 725.5 million shares were received.

“Meanwhile, 21,795 applications for the remaining public portion amounting to 1.8 billion shares were received, representing an oversubscription rate of 108 times,” it said.

Besides, the 16.1 million new shares for its eligible director sand employees, as well as persons who have contributed to the success of Pekat had also been fully subscribed.

Commenting on the record-high demand from retail investors for Pekat IPO, M&A Securities Sdn Bhd corporate finance MD Datuk Bill Tan said the strong demand for green energy-focused companies reflect the shift in investor sentiment towards environmental, social and governance companies, especially solar power.

Pekat MD Chin Soo Mau said moving forward, the company aims to grow its orderbook for solar PV division’s contribution to the group’s revenue to between 60% and 70% in the current financial year ending Dec 31, 2021.

“Pekat will tap into the RM1 billion local solar market with potential jobs this year, driven mainly from the Net Energy Metering (NEM) 3.0 programme.

“So far, we have secured over 22MW under the net offset virtual aggregation programme for commercial premises under NEM 3.0, and we are applying for more, as we aim to achieve 10% share from the total 300MW quota allocated for commercial premises,” he added.