Mondo Visione Worldwide Financial Markets Intelligence

FTSE Mondo Visione Exchanges Index:

Bursa Launches Prospectus For IPO Of 166 Million New Ordinary Shares

Date 24/02/2005

Bursa Malaysia Berhad (Bursa) today launched its prospectus for the Initial Public Offer (IPO) of 166 million new ordinary shares of RM0.50 in conjunction with its listing on the Main Board of Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad.

The prospectus was launched by Tun Mohamed Dzaiddin Haji Abdullah, Chairman of Bursa Malaysia and witnessed by directors, shareholders, management, employees of Bursa and representatives of market participants. The current shareholders of Bursa are the Minister of Finance Incorporated, the Capital Market Development Fund, Stockbrokers and remisiers.

Yusli Mohamed Yusoff, Chief Executive Officer of Bursa announced that the offer for sale of the 166 million shares consists of the institutional tranche of 116.9 million shares, or 70.4% of the total issue to selected Malaysian and foreign institutional investors by way of bookbuilding, and the retail tranche of 49.1million, representing 29.6 % of the total issue to the Malaysian public, shareholders, eligible directors, employees and persons who have contributed to the success of the company.

“The offer for sale is made to the Malaysian public at a retail price of RM3.00 per share, subjected to a retail discount of 3% to the institutional price, to be determined based on the bookbuilding exercise. With the retail discount, we hope to generate greater retail interest and participation in our company.

“Listing the exchange will enhance the profile of not just Bursa as a competitive global exchange, but it will also profile the competitiveness of the Malaysian Capital Market. The listing is also geared towards instilling greater discipline in enhancing transparency and efficiency at the exchange.

The IPO will broaden the existing shareholder base to include a good mix of institutional and retail investors in enhancing liquidity and coverage on the company post listing.

“With the IPO, we will have a free float of about 60%. With this we hope to be included in major global indices which will place Bursa on the radar screen of international investors.

Bursa will focus on three key areas in growing the business of the exchange, the first is to increase turnover velocity by encouraging greater participation from existing market participants mainly listed companies and companies seeking listings, intermediaries, and institutional and retail investors.

“Initiatives towards this include greater research coverage on Malaysian stocks through the CMDF - Bursa Research Scheme launched in January this year, the proposed cross trading link between Bursa and SGX and maximising opportunities arising from the Common Trading Platform (CTP) which will be implemented. The enhanced range of products and services offerings facilitated by the CTP will encourage participation of intermediaries and investors on our exchange, thus improving liquidity.

“The Government's decision to open access to foreign stockbrokers will undoubtedly have significant impact on enhancing foreign participation in our market and at the same time enhance skills set of intermediaries.

“Our second area of focus seeks to enhance revenue growth through new products and services. This includes the pricing model for information services and the introduction of new products and services for both derivatives and equities markets.

“The third area of focus for Bursa is enhancing our operational scale and efficiency. Through business process reengineering, we aim to improve turn-around time of operational and regulatory functions, improve process efficiency and enhance customer satisfaction. “In addition, we will also focus on proactive capital management, actively seeking ways to optimise our capital structure and maximising returns to shareholders,” Yusli said.

Whilst focussing on enhancing commercial value, Bursa will continue to discharge its duties as a regulator in maintaining a fair and orderly market.

“We intend to set standards for corporate governance and disclosure in the industry. To start with, our prospectus has been drafted based on international standards, providing our investors with adequate information to assist them in making better informed decisions on us,” Yusli said.

The advisers for Bursa’s IPO are made up of Joint Global Coordinators, CIMB and UBS, Co-Managers for the institutional offering, AmMerchant Bank Berhad and CLSA Asia Pacific Markets, the underwriters, Hwang DBS Securities, Mayban Securities, OSK Securities and RHB Securities.