CTOS DIGITAL GAINS ON IPO DEBUT

CTOS Digital Bhd made an impressive debut on Bursa Malaysia on Monday, surging to a high of RM1.66 or 56 sen above its offer price of RM1.10.

It opened at RM1.50 or 40 sen above its offer price of RM1.10.

At 9.03am, it was trading at RM1.62, up 52 sen. There were 53.42 million shares done at prices ranging from RM1.50 to RM1.66.

The FBM KLCI was down 2.04 points or 0.13% to 1,520.44. Turnover was 189.21 million shares valued at RM136.09mil. There were 164 gainers, 140 losers and 288 counters unchanged.

Upon Monday’s listing, based on the offer price of RM1.10 a share, the credit reporting company’s market capitalisation of RM2.4bil makes it the largest IPO in Malaysia this year.

Its IPO garnered the largest retail demand since 2013, with the public tranche oversubscribed by 27.6 times at a value of RM1.38bil. It received 51, 494 applications for 1.26 billion shares, out of the 44 million shares made available for the Malaysian public.

Twenty-three cornerstone investors subscribed to 54.4% of the institutional offering and the remaining shares available for bookbuilding saw an overwhelming demand of over RM6.5bil.

Last Friday, CTOS recorded a higher net profit of RM19.53mil for the six months ended June 30, 2021 from RM15.62mil a year ago. Its revenue increased to RM75.80mil from RM64.73mil, with a strong contribution from Malaysian and international operations.

Its net profit jumped to RM11.84mil in the second quarter ended June 30, 2021 from RM7.50mil a year ago.

UOB Kay Hian Malaysia Research had a fair value of RM1.32 for the shares.

The research house said CTOS is well-positioned to prosper in the Asean credit bureau ecosystem, riding on its diversified customer portfolio, dominant market share with extensive database (more than 30 years) and ambitious regional growth strategy across multiple markets.

The large unbanked population and prospective credit growth in under-penetrated emerging countries where CTOS serves also offers plenty of opportunities for supercharged earnings growth.