Pan Merchant aims to raise RM67.6mil from IPO
KUALA LUMPUR: Solid-liquid filtration solutions provider Pan Merchant Bhd aims to raise RM67.6 million from its initial public offering (IPO) en route to a listing on the ACE Market of Bursa Malaysia.
The company, which is scheduled for the listing on June 26, 2025, is making a public issue of 232.2 million new shares, priced at 27 sen apiece.
Managing director Wong Voon Ten said that through this IPO, the group aims to stay ahead in the industry, placing strong emphasis on research and development, sharpening products performance and experimenting with new materials and technologies.
He said the group is also pushing ahead with its international expansion strategy, with particular focus on the United State (US) and European markets which represent high-potential opportunities for premium solid-liquid filtration systems.
"We are committed to expanding our international footprint and sharpening our competitive edge as we work towards growing our global market share to 2.0 per cent - 3.0 per cent in the future from 0.5 per cent,' he said during the launch of Pan Merchant's prospectus here today.
Wong said Pan Merchant is ramping up its manufacturing capabilities by investing in the latest machinery and expanding automation.
The company has earmarked 40 per cent for its capital expenditure out of the RM67.6 million listing proceeds.
"The proceeds are going to be mainly in purchasing of capital and investment into machinery for more automation in our production processes and including bringing higher efficiencies in the production process itself with robotics and automation in Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machining centres and so on," Wong said..
From RM67.6 million IPO proceeds, RM62.7 million will be accrued to Pan Merchant, while the balance of RM4.9 million will be for the offerer.
Of the total proceeds of RM62.7 million raised, RM28 million would be allocated to capital expenditure for manufacturing plants, including the acquisition of machinery, equipment and tools, as well as renovations to its manufacturing facilities, the company said.
A further RM7 million will be allocated for product development and RM27.7 million for business expansion, general working capital and defraying of listing expenses.
Established for 38 years, the company is also expanding its business into water, mineral processing and mining industries and renewable energies from the hydrotreated vegetable oil industry.
It also aims to distribute at least 30 per cent of its net profit to reward shareholders.
Affin Hwang Investment Bank is the principal adviser, sponsor, sole placement agent and sole underwriter for Pan Merchant's IPO exercise. - Bernama
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
3 hours ago
- The Star
Is China's promise of a new world order a self-serving power play?
As China has found itself in the midst of a rapidly escalating trade war with the United States after President Donald Trump launched global tariff measures, Beijing launched a sweeping outreach strategy intended to strengthen ties with Russian and Southeast Asian trade partners while also welcoming Latin American and European stakeholders. The multifront diplomatic charm offensive has had at its core one clear message: a shift to a multipolar world is accelerating, and Beijing is ready to work with partners to defend the 'rules-based, UN-centred' international system that has underpinned economic globalisation since World War II. Beijing's message holds that the post-war order, once symbolised by multilateral cooperation, is now being challenged by Washington's retreat under the banner of 'America first'. Observers have watched as China has amplified this theme to court Europe and the Global South, framing itself as a defender of multilateralism and a responsible stakeholder in the post-war system in contrast to what Washington now offers. But the analysts have also cautioned that divergent world views and competing national interests – as well as the strategic calculations of countries seeking to balance or benefit from US-China tensions – could undercut Beijing's vision of a multipolar world. China has used its membership in diplomatic platforms, such as the United Nations and the World Trade Organization, to highlight its World War II sacrifices and contributions to the post-war international order. During a visit to Moscow last month, Chinese President Xi Jinping told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin that both sides should work together to defend their second world war legacies, as well as the rights of developing nations to pursue an 'equal and orderly' multipolar world. Victor Gao, vice-president of the Centre for China and Globalisation, said Beijing has been reminding the world of the origins of the post-war international system. 'The international order established in 1945 was not unilateral from the outset – it was built on multilateralism, centred around the United Nations,' he said. 'The US launch of a global tariff war ... deprives other countries' rights to development, which China opposes.' Since Xi came to power, China has advanced its vision of a multipolar world order through initiatives such as the Global Development Initiative (GDI), the Global Security Initiative, and the Global Civilisation Initiative – all aimed at providing an alternative to the Western development model. The Belt and Road Initiative has been central to these initiatives to empower developing economies, alongside the expansion of Global South-focused blocs such as Brics. At the China-Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) Forumlast month, Xi highlighted a 'shared identity' with the region, calling for 'independent development paths' and joint efforts to promote multipolarity and reform global governance. In a separate meeting with African diplomats, Foreign Minister Wang Yi invoked a 'common destiny' shaped by historical injustice. Similar themes were echoed during Xi's April visit to Southeast Asia, seen as a 'back door' for China's exports to circumvent trade restrictions from Washington, where he has prioritised neighbourhood diplomacy and supply chain resilience in response to US tariffs. Gedaliah Afterman, a Chinese foreign policy specialist at Israel's Reichman University, described Chinese advocacy for a multipolar world order as both 'ideological and strategic.' 'This narrative resonates across the Global South, where China positions itself as a champion of 'pluralism' and 'win-win cooperation',' he said. 'However, China's embrace of multipolarity is selective and self-serving. While it publicly promotes a world of diverse centres of power, in practice it seeks to structure this order in ways that amplify its own influence.' Through its trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative, China is expanding its footprint across developing regions, including Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. The areas have become key destinations for Beijing to diversify its exports and supply chains, while also offering access to critical minerals amid US export controls. Gustavo de Carvalho, a senior researcher on African governance and diplomacy at the South African Institute of International Affairs, said Latin American and African countries embrace China's multipolar vision where it provides 'tangible benefits', such as technology transfers, industrial upgrades and 'institutional alternatives'. Latin American and African countries including Brazil and South Africa – both Brics members – have often backed China's push to reform global governance in favour of Global South interests. But 'rather than endorsing any particular power's vision of world order', these countries have hedged their ties with the US and Europe alongside China amid the US-China rivalry, de Carvalho said. He cited African nations ramping up lithium and battery production to serve both Chinese and Western markets, and Latin American countries pursuing trade deals with the European Union while deepening their economic ties with Beijing. 'This represents calculated hedging rather than ideological conversion,' de Carvalho said. Similar hedging strategies have also been adopted by Middle Eastern countries, as they position themselves to benefit from a future multipolar structure, Afterman said. 'China has found receptive ground for its multipolar vision in the Middle East, especially among states seeking greater strategic autonomy from Washington,' he said. 'For Gulf monarchies and other regional actors, multipolarity is not about endorsing a new global order but about expanding strategic space. These countries seek to balance between the US, China, Russia and others to advance their national interests.' '[But] divergences become clear when China's vision intersects with contested regional dynamics or entrenched security architectures ... China's growing economic role is evident, but whether it has the will or capacity to assume a meaningful political or security role in the region remains an open question.' Many Middle Eastern nations have long been reliant on US security guarantees, and the region has returned to the forefront of Trump's 'America first' strategy. His recent visit to the region secured billions of dollars in AI-related investments – an arena of intense competition between Washington and Beijing. At last week's China-Asean Gulf Cooperation Council forum in Malaysia, Chinese Premier Li Qiang pledged to deepen regional economic integration, aiming to build a market where investment, technology and talent move freely. While many Southeast Asian nations have been open to China's call for a multipolar world, they have also been assessing whether Beijing was 'fully living up to' the ideals it has been pitching, especially when it comes to its approach on the South China Sea, according to Dylan Loh, a Chinese foreign policy specialist at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. 'While [China] speaks of an equitable, multipolar and just world, [Southeast Asian] states are also assessing if this is the case. Its actions in the South China Sea, for instance, are seen by some as not fully aligning with some of the principles it espouses,' he said. Long-standing sovereignty disputes over the resource-rich region have strained China's relations with several Asean members. The contested waterway has also increasingly become a flashpoint for military tensions between China and US allies. Shi Yinhong, an international relations professor at Renmin University, said multipolarisation may offer smaller nations greater room to manoeuvre but also more pressure to choose sides. It remained doubtful that Trump's 'isolationism' would provide more room for China to increase its influence in the developing world, he added, noting that issues such as the South China Sea, Iran and Russia's war in Ukraine would continue to strain China's relations with Europe and the Global South. 'Apart from some limited and somewhat empty diplomatic gains, China's financial resources will be further squeezed, especially with that consumptive overseas involvement, if the Belt and Road Initiative has not been implemented effectively.' China has begun pivoting its belt and road spending toward more financially sustainable projects in green energy and hi-tech sectors as it continues to face economic headwinds. Many economists have predicted that sustained US tariffs would further slow its economy. Jo Inge Bekkevold, a Senior China Fellow at the Norwegian Institute for Defence Studies, said China's push for multipolarity has gained a lot of traction in the Global South, but less so in Europe. China has long seen the EU as a key pole in a multipolar world, urging Brussels to maintain 'strategic autonomy' as the bloc has aligned with Washington to counter Beijing's influence. EU-China relations have shown signs of thaw as transatlantic ties have been strained over Trump's tariffs and Ukraine policies. In a recent exchange of notes with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa to mark 50 years of diplomatic ties, Xi called the EU a 'major force' in building a multipolar world alongside China. Bekkevold said Europe had not fully agreed with 'America's threat assessment of China' due to geographic distance, which has also allowed it more room to hedge and sustain economic ties with Beijing. At a May forum hosted by the EU delegation to China, European experts also pointed out that while Brussels and Beijing shared an interest in preserving UN-based multilateralism, their strategies and interpretations of it differed. When asked about possible EU cooperation with Brics, Justyna Szczudlik, deputy head of research and coordinator of the Asia-Pacific Programme at the Polish Institute of International Affairs, said Brics was 'China-led multilateralism', adding that the bloc had its 'own agenda' with the Global South. The EU has also diversified its global partnerships, recently signing a major trade agreement with the South American trade bloc Mercosur and pursuing a deal with India by year's end. According to Amit Ranjan, a China-India relations expert at the National University of Singapore, India saw multipolarisation as a way to gain influence in global governance. 'India also projects itself as an important player in world politics and world diplomacy. Therefore, India always calls for reformed multilateralism, because in the current multilateral structure, especially like the UN, it does not have a suitable space for New Delhi,' he said. Ranjan pointed to the UN Security Council, where India's bid for permanent membership has been blocked by China, which has been reluctant to share its status as the sole Asian permanent member amid concerns it could dilute Beijing's influence. Ranjan added that, like China, India has also considered itself a leader for the Global South and has been engaging with state players. Since 2023, India has hosted the annual Voice of Global South Summit with more than 100 nations taking part. It has long pushed back against China's dominance in Brics and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and has refused to endorse the Belt and Road Initiative. Additional reporting by Dewey Sim - SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
The Star
9 hours ago
- The Star
Vietnam welcomes 9.2 million international visitors in first five months
International tourists visit Hanoi. - Photo: VNA file HANOI: Vietnam welcomed 9.2 million international arrivals in the first five months of this year, marking a 21.3 per cent increase compared to the same period last year, the National Statistics Office reported on Friday (June 6). Of the total, 7.84 million visitors arrived by air, accounting for 85.2 per cent, followed by 1.18 million arrivals by road and 175,400 by sea. Asia remained the largest source market, contributing over 7.2 million visitors. European arrivals exceeded 1.2 million, while the Americas accounted for more than 496,900 visitors, followed by Oceania and Africa. According to the office, the surge in international arrivals was driven by favourable visa policies, intensified tourism promotion campaigns and celebratory activities marking major national holidays. - Xinhua
The Star
13 hours ago
- The Star
Bitter return for deported Iraqis
IRAQI Mohammed Jalal lost 10 years of his life seeking asylum in Germany, without success. Instead of being granted refuge, he was sent back to the land he had fled. He now faces the same challenges that drove him to leave the northern Kurdistan region of Iraq. More than a year has passed, and he is still without a job. Jalal is just one of thousands of Iraqis and migrants from many other countries who have been forced out of Europe as it tightens its migration policies, driven by the rise of the extreme right. European states are now working closely with Iraq to support returnees by funding programmes primarily aimed at tackling unemployment. In the town of Ranya in autonomous Kurdistan, Jalal moved back in with his elderly father to a cramped two-room apartment where they sleep on mattresses on a cold concrete floor. 'If I could return to Europe I would,' 39-year-old Jalal said. He still dreams of a day when German authorities grant him asylum. Mohamed Jalal posing for a picture in his apartment in Ranya. — AFP 'I could become legal and work in a Kurdish restaurant,' he said. 'Here I don't have a job.' In 2015, Jalal undertook the perilous journey across the Mediterranean from the Turkish city of Izmir to Greece. He went to North Macedonia, Serbia and Croatia before finally reaching Germany. There, he settled in a centre for asylum seekers and received €300 a month. Despite restrictions on asylum seekers getting jobs, Jalal travelled to cities including Nuremberg and Munich where he worked illegally and had to be careful not to be caught. Jalal's asylum requests were denied twice and Germany expelled him in January last year. Back home, following a failed attempt to open a bakery, he worked for two months at a falafel kiosk earning US$7 a day. Unemployed again, he now receives US$150 from his family abroad. 'I live on this meagre amount,' he said. In the last quarter of 2024, around 125,000 non-Europeans were ordered to leave a country in the European Union, 16% more than during the same period in 2023. 'As a matter of principle, Germany repatriates people who are required to leave the country,' the German embassy said. Mohamed Ismail working in his repair shop in Arbil. — AFP It said Germany 'has given protection and shelter to millions of people who have fled war and violence in their home countries', including many Iraqis, mostly from the north. But the embassy warned that 'there are no prospects of residence for people who enter Germany irregularly in the hope of a better life and who have no need for protection'. Despite presenting itself as an oasis of stability in turbulent Iraq, Kurdistan is grappling with economic challenges that push its young people to seek opportunities elsewhere. Many have lost their lives while trying to reach Europe. Hardi Ahmed left Ranya, east of the Kurdistan capital Arbil, in 2021. He called his journey to the United Kingdom the 'path of death' after losing three friends to drowning, one in the channel between France and Britain. Upon arrival, Ahmed quickly realised he was not welcome. He was turned back to France, where the Iraqi embassy helped him return home. Back in Kurdistan, the 39-year-old is now unemployed, and believes the authorities should provide jobs. 'If not, youth will be forced... to go to Europe,' he said. After decades marred by conflict, including a US-led invasion followed by insurgencies and the rise of the Islamic State group, Iraq has now regained some stability. The German government-linked development agency GIZ supports centres in Arbil and Baghdad that provide returnees with counselling and help in job searches, training and providing financial aid for small businesses. Funded by Germany, Switzerland and the EU, the centres assisted 350 people between June 2023 and August 2024. The EU ambassador to Iraq, Thomas Seiler, said that 'some member states have agreed on bilateral return and readmission agreements with Iraq', and the EU is finalising a similar deal. The capacity of many European cities and villages 'to receive and integrate' migrants 'has long been reached', Seiler warned. 'Irregular migration should now clearly be prevented.' Seiler said the EU funds programmes to assist Iraq in welcoming back returnees. It also provides tens of millions of euros to support initiatives aimed at helping 'Iraqis stay in Iraq'. With funding from Denmark and Finland, the Kurdish Rwanga Foundation launched a programme to reintegrate returnees. It has so far trained 120 people on starting small businesses and provided grants of up to US$5,600 to 15 of them. Kamiran Shivan, head of the foundation's programmes, said beneficiaries' sectors include construction, carpentry, mobile and electronics repair, restaurants and beauty salons. Many Iraqis return home burdened with debt from the cost of their journey to Europe. 'They come back without having a source of income or assets that would allow them to repay their debts,' Shivan said. Mohammed Ismail, 29, left for Germany in 2016, hoping for a better life and a European passport. But more than five years later, nothing has changed for him. Germany rejected his asylum requests three times on the basis that Arbil is considered safe. Back home in Kurdistan, he received a grant from Rwanga to become a partner in a mechanic's workshop, which provides him with US$550 a month – enough to support his wife and three-year-old child. 'I no longer consider emigrating,' Ismail said. 'If I return to Europe, it will be as a tourist.' — AFP
