Sasbadi to buy publishing businesses post-IPO by Shalini Kumar of theedgemalaysia on Tuesday, 08 July 2014 01:58 KUALA LUMPUR: Sasbadi Holdings Bhd is planning to use up to 45.58% or RM11.5 million from the expected RM25.23 million that will be raised from its initial public offering (IPO) to finance its purchase of some publishing businesses. Sasbadi has yet to determine the businesses, but managing director Law King Hui said they “will expand our presence in the market for educational materials for the Chinese national-type schools, and cater to the expanding Bahasa Malaysia and Chinese reading population.” He told reporters after the group’s prospectus launch yesterday that any additional funding needed for the exercise would be met through internally-generated funds, and/or external funds. Part of the IPO proceeds has also been earmarked for the purchase of a yet-to-be-identified new office-cum-warehouse building, with an expected built-up area of about 10,000 sq ft within the Klang Valley. “Ideally we will be looking for a location that is accessible to the management. The purchase is to cater to our expansion programme. “Our headquarters [in Kota Damansara] are running at full capacity, so it is only a natural progression for us to require a new office-cum-warehouse,” said Law. The remainder of the proceeds will go towards establishing applied learning centres, and for the group’s working capital and listing expenses. Looking forward, Law said print media will remain the key revenue driver for the group. “The majority [90% last year] of our revenue comes from print media. Personally, I look at this industry and am very convinced and confident that the print media is here to stay for many years. “Tablets and smart devices are still not available to every Malaysian and I think we are a long way yet from seeing that happen. Education is supposed to be accessible to all and we have to ensure that the medium of delivery has to be one that is accessible to all,” he said. For the six months ended Feb 28, 2014, the group achieved RM44 million in revenue, with a net profit of RM8.03 million. Its expected listing date on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia is July 23. The IPO involves a public issue of 21.2 million new shares and an offer for sale of up to 35.95 million existing shares at RM1.19 per share. Upon listing, the group’s market capitalisation is expected to hit RM151.13 million. Under the public issue, Sasbadi aims to raise RM25.23 million for the company’s expansion. That entails 6.4 million new shares for the public, 5.7 million for eligible directors and employees, with 9.15 million shares to be placed out to selected investors. Meanwhile, the offer for sale, earmarked for placement to approved bumiputera and selected investors, will raise RM42.8 million for the group’s major shareholders. Sasbadi is primarily a publisher of educational materials, undertaking print publishing focusing on primary and secondary education. While most of them are based on the Malaysian national school curriculum, the group also publishes other non-curriculum based education materials and general title books. This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on July 8, 2014.
Posted on: Tue, 08 Jul 2014 10:22:15 +0000
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