Nanofilm closes 12.4% up on trading debut

NANOFILM Technologies on Friday ended its first day trading on the mainboard at S$2.91, 12.4 per cent or S$0.32 above its initial public offering (IPO) price of S$2.59.

From the start of trading at 9am till market close, the units traded within a band of S$2.75 to S$3.02 and on high trading volume. About 106.5 million shares changed hands.

Shares of Nanofilm, which specialises in advanced materials and nanoproducts, opened at S$2.79, up S$0.20 or 7.7 per cent from its IPO price. Its share price rose to reach an intraday high of S$3.02 with 86.7 million shares traded at around 11.40am. It dipped slightly later in the day to end at S$2.91.

Based on its placement price, Nanofilm's market capitalisation is about S$1.7 billion.

The IPO is priced at around 46 times earnings based on its fully diluted, adjusted earnings per share of 5.57 Singapore cents for the financial year 2019. The placement tranche was 22.9 times subscribed, and the public offer was 30.6 times subscribed.

Ahead of the IPO, cornerstone investors had agreed to scoop up some 104.3 million shares amounting to around S$270 million, taking up more than 50 per cent of the offering.

The company's 13 cornerstone investors include Venezio Investments, an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Temasek Holdings; Aberdeen Standard Investments (Asia); AIA Investment Management Private; and Lion Global Investors. Temasek is also a substantial shareholder following the completion of the listing and sale of cornerstone shares.

About S$190.9 million of the S$470.1 million raised will go to the company for capital expenditure on development, building of new machinery, purchase of new machinery, research and development and engineering. Proceeds will also go towards construction, refurbishment and renovation of new and existing production facilities, and general corporate and working-capital purposes.

Nanofilm Technologies is a spin-off company of Nanyang Technological University (NTU), and was founded by executive chairman Shi Xu in 1999 when he was an associate professor at NTU's School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

The listing is the first on the Singapore Exchange main board since March and among the largest non-Reit (real estate investment trust) listings in recent years.

KEYWORDS IN THIS ARTICLE

BT is now on Telegram!

For daily updates on weekdays and specially selected content for the weekend. Subscribe to t.me/BizTimes