Growing Singapore border demand boosts Malaysian bus firm’s IPO
HI Mobility raises RM116 million in a rare listing that values it at US$137 million
[KUALA LUMPUR] Malaysian bus operator HI Mobility is betting on increased traffic at the Singapore border to drive growth as the company started trading on Friday (Mar 28) after a rare listing by one of the country’s transport providers.
The company, which is the biggest cross-border bus operator in both countries, has raised RM116 million (S$34.8 million) in an initial public offering (IPO) that values it at US$137 million.
Chief executive officer Lim Chern Chuen is seeing a change in the profile of his customers and strong growth in HI Mobility’s cross-border bus services between Malaysia’s Johor state and Singapore over the last few years.
While bus services were traditionally used by Malaysians going to work in Singapore, more people are travelling in the other direction to Johor, following the creation of a special economic zone, he said in an interview. More than 300,000 people cross the Causeway daily, making it one of the busiest land crossings in the world.
HI Mobility’s revenue rose 73 per cent to RM207.7 million in 2024 from the previous year, while gross profit more than doubled. It operates 155 buses on the Singapore-Johor route, around a quarter of its overall fleet.
Nearly half its revenue in 2024 came from Singapore. It also operates bus services in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, and the states of Selangor and Melaka.
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The company’s stock market debut is a rare success story in Malaysia’s public transport landscape, which is mostly dominated by closely held state-linked firms.
Lim said that HI Mobility’s success in gaining profitability is in part due to its pursuit of automation to increase efficiency, and it is now also offering automation and technological solutions as a service to other operators.
“If we look at mobility as a whole, that is where the market becomes even bigger, beyond just the buses we operate,” the CEO said.
Founded in 2002 as Causeway Link by Lim’s father, Lim Han Weng, the company was the first Malaysian bus operator to win a cross-border service licence.
The elder Lim also founded Johor-based logistics company Yinson Holdings, which has transformed into an energy infrastructure firm with a market value of US$1.4 billion. Yinson is currently planning an IPO for its offshore floating production unit in the US.
HI Mobility’s IPO will make it the third-largest listing in Malaysia this year, where US$127 million has been raised so far – the most in South-east Asia. Malaysia’s stock market was also the region’s top IPO destination, hosting more than US$1.8 billion worth of IPOs. BLOOMBERG
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