No Signboard IPO 23.6 times subscribed; debuts on Catalist on Nov 30

SHARES of seafood restaurant chain No Signboard Holdings were 23.6 times subscribed in its initial public offering (IPO) that closed on Tuesday (Nov 28), the firm said on Wednesday.

The family-owned business, famed for its white pepper crab, will start trading on the Catalist board of the Singapore Exchange at 9am on Thursday (Nov 30), after pricing its shares at S$0.28 apiece, the top end of its indicative range.

Excluding shares that were offered to cornerstone investors, the IPO size was 65.7 million shares. The public was offered 2.5 million shares and the rest were placement shares.

The public offer was 268.6 times subscribed, with 7,620 valid applications made while application monies received was around S$188 million.

The public and placement tranches combined were 23.6 times subscribed, after counting indications of interest received for the placement shares.

They were 11.2 times subscribed based on the number of placement shares that were validly subscribed.

Rival seafood chain Jumbo Group, when it listed on the Catalist board two years ago, was eight times subscribed. Jumbo did not disclose indicated interest for its placement tranche.

No Signboard owns three restaurants at the Esplanade, VivoCity and The Central @ Clarke Quay, as well as one franchisee at Mattar Road run by relatives.

Restaurant sales have been falling over the last two years due to slower economic growth and a lower customer count, although the group also managed to pull in more tourists who spend more than locals, it said.

The IPO will raise net proceeds of S$18.7 million. Of this, S$10 million will be used to build a new brewery in Indonesia and grow the in-house beer brand Draft Denmark.

No Signboard also intends to use S$5 million to launch a new Chinese casual dining chain by opening two restaurants in the second half of next year. Jurong East and Punggol were named as possible locations.