KUALA LUMPUR: Evocom Bhd made a bruising stock market debut, plunging nearly 28% on its first day of trading to become the worst-performing initial public offering (IPO) debut on Bursa Malaysia so far this year.
The company, which is heavily reliant on SPX Express for revenue, closed at 13 sen compared to its 18-sen IPO price.
Chief executive officer Ian Tan, however, reaffirmed the group’s growth trajectory, despite Evocom’s weak market debut.
Evocom provides network support services for last-mile delivery and transhipment, among others.
It is notable that four out of five ACE Market IPOs this month closed below IPO price on the first trading day.
Apart from Evocom, the three other stocks were GTA Holdings Bhd (minus 4.3%), United Asiapac Energy Bhd (minus 11.4%) and Butterfield FB Bhd (minus 4.2%). Before Evocom, One Gasmaster Holdings Bhd had posted the steepest first-day decline among 2026 ACE Market listings, falling 20% on debut. One Gasmaster was listed in January.
Looking ahead, Tan said Malaysia’s expanding eCommerce and logistics sectors continue to present significant opportunities.
“Industry value grew from RM1.4bil in 2022 to RM1.5bil in 2025 and is projected to reach RM1.7bil by 2028,” Tan said during the listing ceremony yesterday, noting that technology remains vital in managing scale across its 2,500-strong delivery rider operations.
Evocom raised RM20.50mil from its IPO. The retail tranche made available to the Malaysian public via balloting was oversubscribed by 3.6 times.
Of the gross proceeds, RM7.2mil (35.12%) is allocated for working capital in flexible staffing services, RM3mil (14.63%) for proprietary technology applications, and RM3mil (14.63%) to expand its air-freight transhipment business.
Additionally, RM1.5mil (7.31%) will fund a new headquarters in Nilai, Negri Sembilan, while RM1.34mil (6.56%) and RM4.46mil (21.75%) go toward general working capital and listing fees respectively.
Tan highlighted that the RM3mil tech investment will enhance its proprietary applications, EVOSHIFT and CLiPs, focusing on route planning, workforce management, and gig-worker upskilling.
Its planned Nilai facility will soft launch on Oct 14, serving as a procurement center and hub management facility, with full capacity targeting the first quarter of 2027.
Beyond local logistics, Evocom is expanding into air-freight transhipment by leveraging its China partner network to handle freight routes from China to Australia and the Middle East.
Tan added that Evocom plans to hire retired military personnel under Perhebat, tapping into a candidate pool of 5,000 to maintain a 100% local workforce.
However, operational risks remain tightly concentrated.
Flexible staffing accounts for over 90% of revenue, and the group relies heavily on single customer SPX Express, which contributed more than 80% of total revenue across recent financial periods.
SPX Express is the in-house logistics provider owned by Sea Ltd, the parent company of Shopee.
Evocom’s profit margins have also tightened, with profit before tax margins declining from 5.1% in financial year 2022 to 2.57% in the financial period ending March 31, 2026.
