Lotte Chemical Titan to raise RM5.92b from IPO

Boost for Bursa Malaysia with listing of Lotte Chemical Titan Holding Bhd

KUALA LUMPUR: The initial public offering (IPO) of integrated olefin and polyolefin producer Lotte Chemical Titan Holding Bhd (LCT) is expected to raise gross proceeds of approximately RM5.9bil and achieve a post-listing market capitalisation of RM19.7bil, at the retail price of RM8 per share.

LCT will be the largest IPO in Malaysia since August 2012 and the largest in Southeast Asia since May 2013.

The IPO will see the sale of approximately 740.5 million shares, or 30% of the enlarged issued share capital of LCT.

This comprises an institutional offering of 684.7 million IPO shares and a retail offering of 55.8 million IPO shares, representing 27.7% and 2.3% of the enlarged share capital of LCT, respectively.

Proceeds from the IPO will be utilised over the next 12 to 36 months to finance the company's expansion in Malaysia and Indonesia, with 83.2% of gross proceeds to partially fund the development of an RM15.5bil integrated petrochemical facility in Indonesia to increase its ethylene production by up to 1,000 kilo tonnes per annum (KTA).

Meanwhile, 10.5% of the proceeds will go to the construction of a new polypropylene plant in Johor to increase production by 200KTA, and 3.7% of the proceeds will be used to upgrade the group's existing naphtha cracker to increase the production of ethylene, propylene as well as benzene, toluene, xylene (BTX).

LCT also has a joint venture with Lotte Chemical Corp for the US Shale Gas Project to construct and operate an ethane cracker plant and a monoethylene glycol plant in the US.

LCT products are sold to over 60 countries with Malaysia and Indonesia contributing 39% and 28% of total sales, respectively.

Speaking at the prospectus launch on Friday, LCT president and CEO Lee Dong Woo said LCT has benefitted from the relationship with its parent company Lotte Chemical Corp's operational expertise and industrial know-how.

"Our recent investments in the Tanjung Langsat and Pasir Gudang plants have effectively made LCT one of the Lotte Chemical Corp's largest manufacturing concerns outside of South Korea.

"On the back of steady growing demand in the Southeast Asian region that supports the increase in capacity, LCT is pursuing opportunistic investments to expand and diversify our product portfolio and optimise our existing operations," said Lee.

In addition, the prospectus states that LCT aims to pay dividends in the amount equal to approximately 50% of its consolidated net profits of every fiscal year. 

In Malaysia, LCT's operating profits jumped from a mere RM58mil in 2014 to RM1.7bil on the back of a revenue of RM8.1b for the financial year ended December 31, 2016.

En route to listing on Bursa Securities on July 11, 2017, LCT has secured five cornerstone investors, namely Permodalan Nasional Bhd, Maybank Asset Management Sdn Bhd, Maybank Islamic Asset Management Sdn Bhd, Eastspring Investments Bhd and Great Eastern Life Assurance (Malaysia) Bhd, who have agreed to severally acquire an aggregate of 136 million IPO shares, representing 18.4% of the base offering of the IPO. 

Maybank Investment Bank Bhd is the principal adviser, joint global coordinator, joint bookrunner, managing underwriter and joint underwriter for the listing exercise.