Rakuten: TM collaboration to boost AppAsia’s growth

KUALA LUMPUR: Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd remains bullish on AppAsia Bhd’s multi-year growth story.

This is fuelled by the latter’s recurring income stream from its eConfirm.my platform and a recent collaboration with Telekom Malaysia Bhd (TM) to digitalise the Yellow Pages book.

Rakuten said AppAsia was eyeing Thailand and Indonesia as part of its regional expansion plan and was in talks with related parties to boost its footprint in Southeast Asia.

AppAsia is the developer of eConfirm.my, the first and only industry-wide electronic bank confirmation platform in Malaysia.

It has participation from 13 major banks and over 400 audit firms in Malaysia, covering about 80 per cent of the market.

This is similar to Confirmation, a digital confirmation services provider operating across 170 countries serving 16,000 audit firms, 4,000 banks and 5,000 law firms, which was acquired by Thomson Reuters last year.

AppAsia is a collaboration agreement with the Malaysian Institute of Accountants for 12 years until 2030, on a pay-pertransaction revenue model basis, with RM15 per successful confirmation.

Rakuten said for bank balances, deposits and l oan confirmation, AppAsia was working on potential addons to confirmation services for hire purchase, housing loan and legal confirmation.

“AppAsia’s next catalyst for growth is its recent collaboration agreement with the subsidiary of TM to transform the Yellow Pages business directory into a digital business community.

“It has a revenue-sharing model with TM, which is a strategic move that will provide the next growth impetus,” Rakuten said.

Rakuten has recommended “buy” on AppAsia with a revised target price of RM1.18.

It has a revenuesharing model with TM, which we believe is a strategic move that will provide the next growth impetus.

RAKUTEN TRADE

SDN BHD