PETALING JAYA: The ACE Market continues to be a favourite listing platform among companies that are seeking to raise funds and go public this year.
This continues a trend that was noticed last year as funds appear to be more open now to having a stake into such company listings amid a search for higher returns, as borrowing rates drifted lower this year.
In such an investing environment, the smaller boutique investment houses appear to come out tops with M&A Securities Sdn Bhd having advised or underwritten the most initial public offerings (IPOs) of 12 listings this year so far.
This appetite for company listings on the ACE Market is set to continue as investors seek out higher potential gains and appear focused on corresponding growth sectors including the industrial, solar and consumer sectors for their investing portfolios.
Additionally, the ACE Market – is an acronym that stands for Access, Certainty and Efficiency and is designed for companies with growth potential, according to Bursa Malaysia.
It also has lesser barriers for companies to go public, since the ACE Market does not require the same profit track record as listings on the Main Market.
In the year-to-date (y-t-d) period, data from Bursa Malaysia showed there were 33 ACE Market listings which represents slightly over three quarters of all 43 public listings this year.
Another seven were on the Main Market while three listings were recorded on the Leap Market.
Of all the listings in 2025 until the year-to-date period, 19 counters saw positive gains in their share price performance since their listing from its first day’s close.
The top three of these companies that have seen gains included Lim Seong Hai Capital Bhd
, HI Mobility Bhd and Oriental Kopi Holdings Bhd.
Lim Seong Hai Capital, a construction company, had migrated from the Leap Market and had seen notable share price gains of 151.8% since going public on the ACE Market. Meanwhile, Hi Mobility went public on the Main Market and saw triple digit share price gains of 108.3% and Oriental Kopi rose some 63.4% y-t-d from its public listing day’s close.
Hi Mobility operates within the mass transit sector providing cross-border and local bus services and is categorised under the consumer products and services on Bursa Malaysia.
Oriental Kopi is a coffee shop operator which is also categorised as a consumer products and services company on the local bourse.
As of the time of writing, ACE Market-listed Lim Seong Hai Capital had a market capitalisation of RM1.81bil with a historical price to earnings ratio (PER) of 24.8 times.
Meanwhile, ACE Market-listed Oriental Kopi amassed a market capitalisation of RM2.84bil with a PER of some 43 times.
Hi Mobility, which sits on the Main Market, has a market capitalisation of RM1.43bil with a PER of 35 times.
Former senior investment banker and investor Ian Yoong offered some clues as to why the ACE Market continued to pull in more listings than the other boards.
“Listing on the ACE Market offers greater flexibility.
“Companies that list here do not need to fulfill the profit targets that Main Market listings are required to. The applicant for listing on the Main Market must have a profit track record of at least three full financial years,” Yoong told StarBiz.
“The aggregate profits for the three full financial years must be at least RM20mil, and the profits for the most recent financial year must be at least RM6mil. Alternatively, companies may qualify if they meet other financial criteria such as net tangible assets or market capitalisation with cash flow, but the profit track record is a primary pathway for listing here,” he added.
Yoong noted companies that are seeking a listing on any established stock exchange have to be fundamentally attractive and that the most popular financial ratio for determining this is the PER.
“The rule of thumb is that the lower the PER the better it will perform post listing. A capable investor relations consultant will be an advantage.
“Institutional funds are indeed drawn to invest in ACE Market stocks if they are in the hot sectors. The hot sectors currently are artificial intelligence, data centres and solar,” Yoong said.
He expects up to ten more listings representing one per week until the end of this year, which means it is possible there will be some 53 to 55 companies that would be listed by year-end.
“This is still a tremendous achievement nevertheless even though it will fall short of the target of 60 listings that was set out by the stock exchange operator. Potential hot sectors next year could be gold and rare earth metals,” Yoong said.
Meanwhile, data also showed the biggest decliners among the IPO listings this year are Swift Energy Technology Bhd that declined 41.8%; West River Bhd which lost 33.8% and SumiSaujana Group Bhd dropping 33.3% since its first day’s close.
Swift Energy is a supplier of automation and power systems to the renewable energy and the oil and gas industries.
West River, meanwhile, is a mechanical and electrical engineering company and Sumisaujana is a specialty chemicals manufacturer.
Unfortunately, SumiSaujana’s Bursa Malaysia debut on April 9 had occurred on the same day that US President Donald Trump announced sweeping reciprocal tariffs, amid the FBM KLCI’s 2.98% drop with big declines on the Asian markets on that day.
