EPF, PNB, AIA among CTOS Digital’s 23 cornerstone investors

CTOS Digital group CEO Dennis Martin said: “CTOS Digital’s growth story, combined with an innovative, comprehensive product offering has proven to be a compelling one."

KUALA LUMPUR: The Employees Provident Fund Board and Permodalan Nasional Bhd are among the 23 cornerstone investors for CTOS Digital Bhd’s impending initial public offering (IPO) on Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd.

The credit reporting agency said on Wednesday among the other local and global institutional investors for its IPO are Aberdeen Standard Investment, AIA, Eastspring Investments, FIL Investment Management and JP Morgan Asset Management.

The 23 cornerstone investors constitute the largest number of institutional investors participating in a Malaysian IPO.

CTOS Digital is the holding company of CTOS Data Systems Sdn Bhd and has an associate stake in Business Online Public Company Limited in Thailand – making the Group ASEAN’s leading credit reporting bureau.

It is offering up to 1.10 billion shares comprising 900 million existing shares and 200 million new shares under the IPO. The 1.10 billion shares will account for 50% of its enlarged share base upon listing of 2.20 billion shares.

Of the 1.10 billion shares, it said up to 936 million IPO shares are offered to Malaysian and foreign institutional and selected investors at an institutional price to be determined via book-building. The remaining 164 million shares are for directors, employees and the Malaysian public at the indicative retail price of RM1.10 a share.

At the launch of its prospectus, group CEO Dennis Martin said: “CTOS Digital’s growth story, combined with an innovative, comprehensive product offering has proven to be a compelling one. The tremendous support from notable local and global institutional investors reflects their confidence in our strong track record and growth trajectory going forward.”

“CTOS Digital’s product offerings have expanded beyond credit reporting instruments to include a breadth of digital solutions to support every stage of the customer lifecycle. All of this comes on the back of steady financial growth, making us the leading credit reporting agency in Malaysia.”

Martin said Malaysia’s credit reporting market size is slated to expand at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.2%, a much faster pace compared to the Asean, US and UK markets.

“To cater to the robust environment in Malaysia, we have steadily introduced new products each year, including CTOS eKYC, CTOS Consumer and SME Score, CTOS ID-Guard, the Malaysian banking industry’s first fraud bureau, and many more. This is in line with our plan to introduce more digital solutions to ultimately build a dynamic, stable and agile financial ecosystem in Malaysia.”

Chief Executive Officer of Maybank Kim Eng Group, Datin Ami Moris, said Maybank was pleased to play a part in bringing to the Malaysian capital market a digital solution that empowers the community to achieve financial well-being."

Acting CEO of RHB Investment Bank Jaimie Sia said CTOS Digital Group is well positioned to benefit from robust key areas of growth within the credit reporting industry and maintains a clear leading market position within this space.

CTOS Digital recorded RM42.3mi revenue in the first quarter ended 31 March 2021 (1Q21), 24.1% higher than the RM34.1mil a year ago while normalised PATAMI for the quarter grew 73% to RM16.4mil in 1Q21 from RM9.5mil previously.

The 1Q21 performance outpaced the growth from the financial years ended De 31, 2018 to 2020 (FY2018 to FY2020) where the group reported a 12.8% CAGR in revenue, from RM110.5mil to RM140.5mil.

Normalised net profit attributable to shareholders (PATAMI) recorded quicker CAGR of 22.2%, jumping from RM30.5mil to RM45.5mil from FY2018 to FY2020.

Maybank Investment Bank (Maybank IB) and RHB Investment Bank (RHB IB) are joint principal advisers of the IPO exercise, as well as joint bookrunners, joint managing underwriters and joint underwriters with AmInvestment Bank.

On top of that, Maybank IB and RHB IB are joint global coordinators and joint bookrunners with Credit Suisse Securities (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd and Credit Suisse (Singapore) Ltd.