Hot stock: Aspen falls 3.8% after mainboard transfer

SHARES of Malaysian property developer Aspen (Group) Holdings shed more than 3 per cent on the company's trading debut as a mainboard-listed firm after transferring from the Singapore Exchange's (SGX) Catalist board.

As at 11.58am on Thursday, the counter dropped 3.8 per cent or one Singapore cent to 25.5 cents, with some 4.6 million shares changing hands.

No married deals were recorded before the midday break, Shareinvestor data showed.

Aspen was listed on SGX's Catalist board via an initial public offering on July 28, 2017.

Said M Murly, Aspen's president and chief executive officer: "We are pleased to announce that we have officially moved to the mainboard after trading on the Catalist board for the last 3.5 years. Our intention for the move was to increase the group's exposure and improve our access to the larger capital markets including institutional and retail investors."

He added that the group recently diversified into the healthcare sector with the manufacturing and distribution of gloves. Earlier this month, the group announced that its glovemaking unit has secured US$100 million in sales for 2021.

As for Aspen's property division, the group currently has unbilled sales of about RM600 million (S$197.5 million) from existing projects, it said.

Among other things, the group is targeting to launch new projects with an estimated gross development value of RM500 million for FY2021 under the Aspen Vision City master plan development jointly undertaken with IKEA South-east Asia.

The group is also involved in the food and beverage sector, having secured the master franchise rights from Kanada-Ya UK to operate its chain of ramen outlets in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.