AppAsia plans Australian listing of subsidiaries via ALG

KUALA LUMPUR: ACE Marketlisted AppAsia Bhd has proposed to list four of its subsidiaries under AppAsia Ltd Group (ALG), a company set up to undertake listing on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).

The four subsidiaries are AppAsia Studio Sdn Bhd (ASSB), AppAsia Mall Sdn Bhd (AMSB), AppAsia International Sdn Bhd (AISB) and AppAsia International Pty Ltd (AIPL).

They are primarily involved in the e-commerce and mobile applications businesses.

The disposal of three subsidiaries to ALG is executed for an aggregate sale consideration of A$543,615 (RM1.85 million) while the disposal of AIPL — a wholly-owned subsidiary of AISB — to ALG for A$115,331 will be satisfied via the issuance of 9.63 million ALG shares.

In a filing to Bursa Malaysia, AppAsia said the listing exercise would enable ALG to gain direct access to the Australian capital market for capital raising and for recognition and corporate stature.

Further, the exercise will enable ALG to expand and strengthen its market position in Asean and Australia as well as provide an opportunity for investors to participate in the company’s growth by way of equity participation.

The disposal exercise will allow AppAsia to consolidate its online shopping business under ALG by streamlining and improving the operational efficiency between the various online shopping platforms.

In addition, it will transform ALG into a regional online shopping platform operator by integrating gradually all other platforms owned and operated by ALG into AppAsia eMarketplace, which caters to business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions.

AppAsia eMarketplace is owned and operated by AISB.

AppAsia said ALG intended to focus on expanding its market reach in Malaysia through wide adoption of its online shopping platforms by the second quarter of this year.

“One of the strategies that it will be adopting is attracting both large and small merchants to the AppAsia eMarketplace by facilitating both B2B and B2C transactions.

“As Malaysia is currently its base market, ALG will continue to focus on growing its business in this market,” added the company.