LEADING tiles manufacturer and information technology (IT) company YB Ventures Bhd (formerly Yi-Lai Bhd) expects its successful rights issue exercise to enable the company to ride on the recovery of the real estate sector during the post-pandemic period.
This is because more than 90% of the proceeds raised will be utilised to upgrade its existing production lines as well as to construct four new production lines.
“YB Ventures seeks to expand its production capacity and capitalise on the recovery of its operating markets,” commented YB Ventures executive director Datuk Au Yee Boon. “The nearly RM49 mil raised from our ICULS (irredeemable convertible unsecured loan stocks) issuance will provide adequate support to achieve these objectives”.
YB Ventures has earlier announced that its rights issue in the form of ICULS at 4 sen per rights share was oversubscribed by 46.6%.
The 1.21 billion ICULS will be listed and quoted on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia on Sept 10 under YB-LA (5048LA). The exercise has enabled the group to raise about RM48.4 mil which is more than six times the minimum subscription level of RM7.5 mil.
The valid acceptances and valid excess applications totalled 1.77 billion rights shares compared with the 1.21 billion made available for subscription.
Of the total oversubscribed rights shares, 1.06 billion or 87.8% are valid acceptances, while the remaining 710.34 million or 58.8% are valid excess applications.
“The gradual recovery of the economy is positive for the group. Not only with property transactions expected to rebound encouragingly in 2022, we will be a direct beneficiary as our products will naturally see strong growth in sales, potentially recovering to pre-pandemic levels or even higher,” projected Au.
“While we are cautiously optimistic about the outlook of the property and construction segment, we are also actively exploring viable opportunities in other segments that can enhance our earnings visibility.”
Elaborating further on prospects, Au said the COVID-19 pandemic has boosted awareness towards the importance of indoor air quality which led to the marketability of its new flagship product – the Talos Living Tiles.
“It is the first negative ion tiles launched in Malaysia,” enthused Au. “Utilising YB Venture’s proprietary ground-breaking Nano Glazing technology, the coated tiles produces and releases negative ions into the air, improving indoor air quality and having a healing effect on the body.”
At the close of today’s trading, YB Ventures was up 1 sen or 1.96% to 52 sen with 453,900 shares traded, thus valuing the company at RM126 mil. – Sept 6, 2021
