Marco Polo Marine raises S$21 million in private placement for business expansion
The capital injection enhances its balance sheet and provides financial flexibility for growth initiatives, says the group
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[SINGAPORE] Integrated marine logistics company Marco Polo Marine has raised around S$21 million in gross proceeds via a private share placement for its business expansion plans.
The placement shares are expected to be listed and quoted on the Singapore Exchange mainboard on Thursday (Mar 5), with trading set to commence at 9 am, the group said in a Wednesday bourse filing.
The placement, which comprises about 144.9 million new ordinary shares issued at S$0.145 apiece, takes Marco Polo Marine’s total number of issued ordinary shares to around 3.9 billion, from 3.8 billion.
The private placement attracted high-net-worth corporate and individual investors, alongside institutional investors such as OCBC’s Lion Global Investors, family office Asdew Acquisitions and Evolve Capital Management.
Sean Lee, chief executive officer of Marco Polo Marine, said the fundraising exercise enables the company to pursue its pipeline of “value-accretive projects”, strengthening its position in the region’s energy transition.
Besides supporting the project pipeline, net proceeds from the placement will be used for capital expenditure, in line with the group’s expansion plans.
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The capital injection also improves its balance sheet and “provides the financial flexibility to accelerate its expansion initiatives, particularly in the offshore wind energy sector”, the company said.
It added that the funds will support ongoing efforts to enhance its fleet of specialised vessels, to meet growing demand for sustainable marine logistics solutions in Asia.
The mainboard-listed group entered into the placement agreement with Maybank Securities on Feb 24. The parties arrived at the price of S$0.145 per placement share after taking into account the prevailing market price of Marco Polo Marine’s existing issued ordinary shares.
The price represents a discount of around 10 per cent to the volume-weighted average price of S$0.1611 per existing share. This was based on trades in the group’s shares on Feb 20 as well as Feb 23 until 12.08 pm, when it called for a trading halt.
Marco Polo Marine on Feb 16 posted S$32.8 million in revenue for its first quarter ended Dec 31, up 27 per cent from S$25.8 million in the year-ago period.
The group’s Q1 gross profit climbed 32 per cent on the year to S$14 million, from S$10.6 million.
Shares of Marco Polo Marine ended Wednesday 4.1 per cent or S$0.007 down at S$0.166, before the news.
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