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IPO Chilli Ratings

IPO Chilli Ratings
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Food Innovators Holding Limited

Food Innovators Holdings Limited ("FIH" or the "Company") is offering 14m shares at $0.22 each, for which 13m shares will be through placement and the remaining 1m shares via a Public Offer. The IPO will close on 14 Nov at 12 noon and starts trading on 16 Oct 9am.  FIH has two business models - the first is to be a master lease and sublease the space to other tenants and the second is to operate and manage restaurants.  The Company currently has 12 restaurants in Japan, 10 in Singapore and 4 in Malaysia. The market cap based on the IPO price is around $24.9m. Financial Highlights FIH's revenue grew from $37.8m in FY2022 to $43.8m in FY2024. It is quite funny to see that being a master land lease holder has a higher margin than operating the restaurants, once again illustrating the point that it is better to be a landlord to shake leg and collect rent. According to the prospectus, the PER is around 19x. The Company intends to pay 20% of its net profit after ...

MeGroup Ltd.


MeGroup Ltd ("MeG" or the "Company") is offering 16.5m shares for its IPO on Catalist for which 15m shares will be via placement and 1.5m shares via public offering. The IPO will close on 29 Oct 2018 at 12pm and starts trading two days later. The market cap based on the IPO price is $27.3m

Principal Business

MeGroup manufactures noise, vibration and harshness components primarily for the automobile industry in Malaysia. It also owns and operates automobile dealerships in parts of Singapore. The dealerships include Honda, Mazda and Peugeot brands. 


Financial Performance


While the dealership business forms the bulk of the revenue, it terms of profitability, it is a stable but low margin business with a gross profit of only 6.7% (see table below). On the other hand, while the manufacturing enjoys high gross profit margins, its performance can be inconsistent, where it suffered a loss in FY2017 due to fire incident.


The Company is listing at at PE ratio of around 9.2x based on the enlarged share capital.

What I Like About the Company
  • Growing car hub with lower cost base - being located in Malaysia, the labor cost is still relatively lower than other regions and that can be advantageous if the car manufacturing industry grow in Malaysia. While the political uncertainty in Malaysia can weigh down on the industry, Mahathir is a big advocate for a new national car! See link here. This bodes well for the manufacturing business but probably detrimental to its car dealership business 
  • Growing economy bodes well for car ownership - If the new government can eradicate corruption and improve the economy, then it will bode well for the Company as car sales will likely improve as sentiments improve
  • Relatively stable business - Other than the dip in revenue and profitability in FY2017 due to a fire incident, the business of MeGroup seemed pretty stable. 
Some of my concerns
  • Family run business - The Wong family comprises the CEO, Mr. Wong Cheong Chee who is 70 years old, and the 3 children, Wong Keat Yee, Wong Sai Hou and Wong Sai Keat. The Wong family will continue to control and run the company post listing but family run business always run the risk of internal squabbles and not hiring the best person needed for the role 
  • Small cap and Thinly traded - The company will have a low market cap of $27m and the ownership is tightly held by the founders and a handful of investors. As such, only 13.9% of the Company will be held by public investors. Investors who subscribe to this IPO will probably need to be wary of the thin liquidity in future
  • Malaysia exposure - the entire business is derived from Malaysia, hence the political stability and business environment is critical. Given the listing in Singapore, investors here will be having a direct exposure to the Malaysian ringgit as the revenue and dividends (if any) will be translated from MYR to SGD.  
Mr IPO ratings

The weak market sentiments and looking at IPO performances for the last 12 months, i think investors are probably better off giving the IPO market a miss. The listings from Malaysia such as Jawala, Aspen as well as the recent listings are all in the red. I would give this Company a miss (zero chilli) and keep my cash in bank till sentiments improve. 


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