PETALING JAYA: PACC Offshore Services Holdings Ltd (POSH), an offshore support vessel (OSV) operator owned by Malaysian billionaire Robert Kuok (pic), will raise at least S$388.27mil (RM1.01bil) from its initial public offering (IPO) on the Singapore Exchange next Friday.
The firm said yesterday in its prospectus that the shares were priced at S$1.15 apiece, near the bottom end of an expected range of between S$1.13 and S$1.24.
An analyst with a local bank-backed research house who tracks Malaysian Bulk Carriers Bhd
(Maybulk), which owns a 21.23% associate stake in POSH, told StarBiz that the IPO was slightly ahead of expectations of a market capitalisation of S$2bil, providing a lift to Maybulk’s own valuations.
The listing valued POSH at a historical price-to-earnings (PE) ratio of 30 times, he said, in line with the average sectoral PE of 29 times, Bloomberg data showed.
POSH is expected to debut with a market capitalisation of approximately S$2.1bil.
Chief executive officer Gerald Seow Kang Hoe said: “Our strong parentage and the commitment of our highly-experienced management team have built POSH into the largest Asia-based international operator of OSVs and among the top-five players globally.
“We are, therefore, well-positioned to capture market opportunities across all our business segments, maintaining our growth momentum and, in particular, expanding into the deepwater offshore accommodation segment.”
The flotation, set to be Singapore’s biggest so far this year, comprises 252.02 million offering shares and 85.61 million cornerstone shares.
Assuming the over-allotment option of 46.125 million shares granted by Pacific Carriers Ltd (PCL) is exercised, the total gross proceeds will rise to S$441.3mil.
A total of 25.2 million offering shares have been reserved for the directors, management, employees and business associates of the company, its subsidiaries and joint-ventures, as well as its parent, Kuok (Singapore) Ltd, and its other subsidiaries.
Malaysian funds Hwang Investment Management Bhd and Fortress Capital Asset Management (M) Sdn Bhd have signed on as cornerstone investors, taking up a combined 85.6 million shares.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch, DBS Bank Ltd and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp advised POSH on the IPO.
According to Forbes, the 90-year-old Kuok is Malaysia’s richest man, with an estimated net worth of about US$11.7bil (RM37.88bil).
