Malaysia’s budget retailer Eco-Shop Marketing Sdn. and Loob Holding Sdn., which runs bubble tea chain Tealive, are aiming to go public next year as their private equity backer Creador Capital Group looks to build on its record of successful exits in the Southeast Asian country.
(Bloomberg) — Malaysia’s budget retailer Eco-Shop Marketing Sdn. and Loob Holding Sdn., which runs bubble tea chain Tealive, are aiming to go public next year as their private equity backer Creador Capital Group looks to build on its record of successful exits in the Southeast Asian country.
Eco-Shop is in the midst of finalizing its first-time share sale and is looking at listing in the second quarter of 2024, with Tealive scheduled for sometime in the final three months of next year, according to Creador Chief Executive Officer Brahmal Vasudevan.
“Eco-Shop does sales of close to 2.2 billion ringgit a year, with profits well north of 100 million ringgit, so that should be a good listing,” Brahmal said in an interview at his office in Kuala Lumpur.
Eco-Shop will be the third Creador-backed company to list on Bursa Malaysia since 2020, following debuts by home improvement chain Mr DIY Group (M) Bhd. and credit bureau CTOS Digital Bhd. The listing may provide a further impetus to Malaysia’s initial public offerings market, which hosted $512 million of first-time share sales so far this year, up about 8% from a year ago, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Read More: Creador-Backed Eco-Shop Said to Weigh $179 Million Malaysian IPO
Creador has also convinced its latest portfolio company, the Malaysian pet food maker Pet World International, to pick Bursa Malaysia over Singapore’s exchange as its listing venue, as the country remains a “very good” IPO market, Brahmal said.
“We have a lot of captive capital, valuation multiples are good and there’s high demand from our local institutions,” he said. “We’ve demonstrated that Malaysia is a good market for companies that have a good growth proposition.”
Twenty one IPO stocks that debuted in Kuala Lumpur this year delivered an average gain of 49% since listing, more than twice the average increase for listings in Southeast Asia, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Excerpts from the interview:
- The consolidation of Caring Pharmacy and Creador-backed Big Pharmacy will take a year, after Big Pharmacy bought Caring for 637.5 million ringgit ($140 million) in July
- Combined annual sales volume for both chains estimated at 2.5 billion ringgit; listing will be pursued sometime in 2025 or 2026, Brahmal said
- Creador has raised $2.15 billion since its inception in 2011, and invested about $2 billion; the fund has returned about 20% annually in dollar terms to investors
- The buyout firm has divided about 70% of its capital evenly between Malaysia and India, and its investors include development banks, family offices, university endowments and insurance companies
–With assistance from Elffie Chew and Filipe Pacheco.
More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com
©2023 Bloomberg L.P.