KUALA LUMPUR: Agricore CS Holdings Bhd has signed an underwriting agreement with M&A Securities Sdn Bhd for its listing on the ACE Market of Bursa Malaysia.

In a statement, the food ingredients supplier said the initial public offering (IPO) entails a public issue of 51.7 million new shares, representing 25.5% of its enlarged share capital upon listing.

M&A Securities will underwrite a total of 20.3 million new shares made available to the Malaysian public and pink form allocations.

Meanwhile, 25.4 million new shares will be placed out to Bumiputera investors approved by the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (Miti) while the remaining 6.1 million new shares will be allocated by way of private placement to selected investors.

Agricore Group is principally involved in the sourcing and distribution and production of plant-based agricultural food ingredients comprising starch products, beans and pulses, grain products and other related products under its house brands “POKOK AGRICORE”, “SunRise” and “CAP POKOK” as well as third party brands.

Oon Boon Khong, managing director of Agricore, said as the population and economic conditions in Malaysia continue to grow, the demand for food ingredients is expected to grow in tandem as food ingredients are essential in food manufacturing and food preparation.

“As our products are widely used in many applications, our business is resilient to economic downturns as food ingredients are necessary to food manufacturing and food preparation which is a necessity in consumers’ daily lives,” added.

Agricore’s revenue increased from RM89mil in FY20 to RM122.7mil in FY22, registering a compounded annual growth rate of 17.4%.

Agricore is tentatively scheduled to list on the ACE Market of Bursa Securities by June 2024.

M&A Securities is the adviser, sponsor, underwriter and placement agent for the IPO exercise.