PUC plans to acquire remaining Pictureworks stake

KUALA LUMPUR: ACE Market-listed company, PUC Berhad (PUC) announced the proposed acquisition of the remaining up to 12,336,288 Ordinary Shares of Pictureworks Holdings Sdn Bhd (Pictureworks) representing the balance up to 67 per cent equity interest for a total purchase consideration of up to RM167.5 million.

PUC group managing director and chief executive officer Cheong Chia Chou points out that PUC has first acquired a 33 per cent stake in PictureworksinJune2018andsince then,Pictureworkshascontributed positively to the group and its earlier investment is expected to yield better results as Pictureworks is expected to exceed the 2018 guaranteed profit of RM14.8 million.

Cheong said, “Acquiring Pictureworks’ remaining stake is a strategic next step to complement the Group’s future business performance as Pictureworks has demonstrated higher success in securing new contracts.”

“Apart from on-boarding a few potential new clients that are currently under discussion, Pictureworks’ business is further strengthened via its collaboration with Smart Guide to widen the market outreach to more than 180 tourist attractions which in turn will generate an exposure to an estimated 200 million visitors.

“In addition, Pictureworks’ proprietary imaging technology PictureAir will be integrated with Facial Recognition technology, thereby enhancing user experience on top of new theme park contracts in the pipeline that will support Pictureworks’ future earnings.”

The proposed acquisition will offer synergistic benefits to PUC as such expertise, services and resources as well as improved operational efficiency through streamlining operating costs through the reduction of overlapping headcounts and overhead costs, leveraging on better procurement terms via sharing of procurement functions and economies of scale.

Moreover, the proposed acquisition will allow PUC to leverage from the benefit of cross-selling its products and to spur creativity for the development of new products to improve the future prospects and potential of the Group’s business expansion into eCommerce, FinTech and OmniChannel.

Cheong shared, “Transforming PictureAir to be one of the key media aggregators of PUC will create synergy enabling PUC to offer a more diversified media and advertising solution portfolios to support the group’s digital business journey.

“Pictureworks’ digital imaging platform — PictureAir can be further commercialised by integrating advertisement spaces on the PictureAir website and mobile app for advertisers’ consumption.”

“PictureAir can also be potentially integrated with PUC’s eCommerce and FinTech arms, such as 11street and Presto, exposing visitors and Internet users to a wider variety of products, deals and services within the eCommerce ecosystem resulting in high traffic among apps to all parties.