WELLNESS programme provider AgapeATP is not sidelining Bursa Malaysia in its expansion quest but merely harbours the ambition of conquering the global market.
This has prompted the company to target the US capital market – either the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) or Nasdaq – as the ultimate platform towards achieving its vision.
Incorporated in the US, AgapeATP plans to offer 7.7 million shares at US$5.50 to US$6.50 per share. If priced at the range’s midpoint at US$6 per share, the deal would raise US$46.2 mil.
“(The) US Capital market has been and is still the largest capital market, so naturally institutional investors and fund houses are paying much more attention to counters over there,” AgapeATP’s vice president (corporate affairs) Vincent Tan told FocusM.
“We view the listing exercise as a tool for expansion instead of milestone achievement.”
Formerly a direct selling company for almost 18 years, the health and wellness outfit was formed in 2016 as a result of a restructuring.
Around the same time of its incorporation, AgapeATP successfully obtained approval from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for initial public offering (IPO) and was listed in the OTC (over-the-counter) markets.
The decentralised market allows market participants to trade stocks, commodities, currencies, or other instruments directly between two parties and without a central exchange or broker.
Listing on OTC before going to a larger stock exchange was beneficial to AgapeATP. It helped the team familiarise and equip themselves with a better understanding of exchanges before they reached the main board.
Moving forward, Tan said AgapeATP will start a whole new chapter with a series of strategic investment activities and upcoming collaboration.
“We think with the leverage and benefit that comes along with the ownership/shares, we could contribute to the industry development by calling upon joint efforts across industry players,” he opined.
“As the wellness industry is quite developed in the western countries, it is part of our plan to get access to largest pool of technical resources and talents in this field. We hope to bring it back and adapt it to the Asian context in the coming three years.”
From Wellness 1.0 that largely focuses on consumables to Wellness 2.0 where market begins to understand that wellness is more than just consumables and include the likes of mental health, lifestyle habits does play important role, Tan said AgapeATP is currently moving towards the Wellness 3.0 era.
“This is where wellness should be more personalised for individuals, thanks to the advancement of technology and improved market consciousness during the pandemic,” he envisaged.
The global wellness economy stands at US$4.4 tril in 2020 amid the chaos and disruptions caused by COVID-19 with Asia-Pacific being the largest region for wellness spending with US$1.5 tril, according to the Global Wellness Institute.
“After the listing exercise, we aim to develop further into the area of personalisation wellness with our ‘Predictive, Preventive, Personalise’ model,” added Tan. – April 29, 2022
