ZICO offers 48m new shares at 30 cts a share for Singapore's Catalist

ZICO Holdings Inc is offering 48 million new shares at 30 cents each for Catalist listing in its initial public offering (IPO) in Singapore.

At 30 cents a share, the placement offer is at a multiple of 17.3 times to its fiscal 2013 earnings.

The Labuan-incorporated company, which provides provide legal services, Shariah advisory, trust advisory among other services, is expecting to raise net proceeds of S$12.5 million. The money will be used to fund its expansion and potential acquisitions, as well as its information technology infrastructure and general working-capital purposes.

It has three core business segments: advisory and transactional services; management and support services; and licensing services.

Its clients include governments and government-linked companies, law firms, private and public-listed companies, multinational corporations and high-net-worth individuals.

For the fiscal years 2011, 2012 and 2013, ZICO's net profit was at RM4.88 million, RM6.36 million and RM11.60 million, respectively. Revenue generated was RM8.90 million in FY2011, RM12.58 million in FY2012 and RM19.22 million in FY2013.

On its growth plans, ZICO said: "We intend to enhance our existing services and to offer new services to attract a wider range of clients. To this end, we aim to diversify our range of professional services, which may be through mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic alliances or start-ups.''

On potential acquisitions, it said it would target service providers with lower start-up and operating costs, stable and recurring income, synergy with its businesses, the ability to leverage existing relationships with their clients and a model that is scalable to other Asean countries.

It also has plans to expand overseas into other markets in the region, reinforcing its position as an Asean-focused entity.

ZICO's market value is expected to be around S$80.1 million on completion of the placement, which will close on Nov 7.

Its managing director Chew Seng Kok and executive directors Robert Liew and Kelvin Ng will hold a combined 45.9 per cent stake in the company after the placement.

Trading on a "ready" basis is scheduled on Nov 11.