Mamee to relist in two years, may not be in Bursa

KUALA LUMPUR: Mamee-Double Decker (M) Sdn Bhd is exploring options for its relisting plans in the next two years.

“We may not list locally as we are still exploring. The Singapore Exchange and Hong Kong Stock Exchange are two possibilities for us,” its group general manager Pierre Pang told the press after a collaborative partnership event with CS Fifty One Sdn Bhd (Societe Family), an upmarket brand of cafes here.

The group was listed on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange in the 1990s but was taken private by the Pang family in January 2012 as they felt that the market did not give the stock the fair value.

“We also didn’t need the additional funds so we took the business private,” Pang said.

A year after its privatisation, the group sold 30% stake to Headland Capital Partners Ltd, a private equity firm based in Hong Kong for an undisclosed price.

Currently, the group is on track to achieve its target sales of RM800mil for the year with an average net margin of about 10%, Pang said, adding that contribution from Malaysia amounted to 50%-60% of the amount.

“Mr Potato is our product with the best selling value whereas in terms of volume, the Mamee Monster sells about 25 million packs monthly in Malaysia alone,” he said.

In 2016, the group will drive its sales for a double digit growth.

One of its main strategies is to collaborate with other businesses, its partnership with the Societe Family being its first of more to come, Pang said.

In the pipeline is a collaboration with a local apparel company where its Mamee Monster logo would be featured on the store, as well as a joint venture with a Japanese group to be announced next month.

“We will sell 50% of our beverage arm to the group and the rest would still belong to us. We had just sealed the deal last month and it would only be activated next year,” Pang said.

For a month after the goods and services tax was implemented, Mamee Double-Decker subsidised its retailers’ margin by 5% so as to cushion the impact of the GST on their business.

This year, the group had targeted to grow its business by 15% but it surpassed expectations, moving into the 25% region, instead.

“We want to continue to ride that growth,” he said.

Meanwhile, the group’s export business is seeing 20% growth and its sales numbers came in at about RM320mil.

“Although we are in over 80 countries, we want to focus our efforts in South-East Asia,” Pang said.

The group had a plant in USJ, and Kuantan, Pahang, and overseas, it has plants in Jakarta, Myanmar and Saudi Arabia, where it recently had its groundbreaking.

“We invested about RM100mil into the Saudi Arabia facility and it should be up in about two years’ time,” Currently, Mamee Group’s biggest overseas market is Australia with sales of about RM30mil per annum.