Solid Leap for Cloudaron on market debut

Great leap: (from left) MDEC vice-president Gopi Ganesalingam, Gan, Ong, Cloudaron Pte Ltd director Joeliardi Sunendar and Cloudaron Group Bhd executive director Lum Piew at the listing ceremony.

KUALA LUMPUR: The Leading Entrepreneur Accelerator Platform (Leap) Market kicked off to a good start yesterday, with the successful debut of IT solutions provider Cloudaron Group Bhd.

The counter closed 1.5 sen higher, at 16.5 sen, than the opening price although volume was thin with only 315,000 shares traded. Overall the gain was 50%.

The Singapore-based company, which specialises in providing technology solutions for cloud, workspace transformation and services for business entrepreneurs, opened four sen higher than its offer price of 11 sen.

Speaking after the listing ceremony, Cloudaron managing director and chief executive officer Ong Chang Jeh said apart from organic growth, the company would be exploring acquisitions to further accelerate growth.

“We will continue to grow our services business to serve business enterprises, and will also be owning and operating digital business platforms.

“We feel this is complementary and adds strength and differentiation to our value proposition,” he said, adding that the company can help serve clients better with its solutions as well as its added experience and expertise in owning and operating digital business platforms.

Cloudaron owns a 10% stake in a Canadian real estate software-as-a-service company.

Going forward, Cloudaron intends to build and operate third-party digital business platforms, among them, an insurance market place and peer-to-peer lending platforms.

Cloudaron issued 50 million shares or 6.4% of its enlarged share capital to selected investors for a total value of RM5.5mil.

The company intends to utilise RM2.4mil of the proceeds to set up a branch or representative office in Indonesia and the Philippines, RM1.9mil to be allocated for day-to-day operations in Singapore and Malaysia, while the remaining RM1.2mil will be used for listing expenses.

Cloudaron had just opened its Indonesian office on Monday.

As of August, Cloudaron had an order book of RM18mil, which will last the company for a year.

It registered a net profit of S$1.72mil (RM5.35mil) and net cash of S$1.8mil (RM5.6mil) for the financial year ended March 31, 2017.

Some 80% of revenue is derived from the Malaysian and Singaporean markets, with key clients comprising RHB Bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Bank of Singapore.

The Leap Market, an alternative platform for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), was set up for these companies to raise capital in an efficient, fast and transparent marketplace for their business growth.

The Leap Market enables SMEs to be a listed entity and assists these companies in their transformation to better governance and operational standards.

Trading on the Leap Market is limited to sophisticated investors, categorised as accredited investors, high-net-worth entities with total net assets exceeding RM10mil, or high-net-worth individuals whose net personal assets exceed RM3mil or a gross annual income exceeding RM300,000.

Cloudaron chairman Datuk Larry Gan, a former Accenture Asia Pacific managing partner, said the company was “exchange-ready” six to 12 months ago and was looking to list in Australia and Singapore, before deciding to list on the Leap Market.

He explained that the objective of Cloudaron being listed on the Leap Market was to give the company a higher profile, raise capital and create better understanding of what it does.