The Star Malaysia - StarBiz

Stellar debut for technology firm Redplanet

- By THOMAS HUONG huong@thestar.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR: Technology company Redplanet Bhd made a strong debut on the LEAP Market on Monday, closing 78% higher at 32 sen compared to its initial public offering (IPO) price of 18 sen, with some 1.2 million shares being traded.

Redplanet is a Geographic Informatio­n System (GIS) or Geospatial solutions provider.

The company’s GIS solutions assist customers in activities such as location search, navigation, logistics routing, customer targeting and asset management.

The GIS solutions help clients capture, store, analyse, interpret, manage and present spatial or geographic data to make better business decisions.

Redplanet serves sectors such as power utilities, informatio­n technology, engineerin­g, ICT infrastruc­ture, smart device solutions, and oil and gas (O&G).

Speaking via a video call at a press briefing after the listing ceremony, executive director Panjetty Kumaradeva­n Senthil Kumar said in light of the global Covid-19 pandemic, there was a slowdown in the business environmen­t.

“However, we do expect things to pick up in the longer term.”

Panjetty said the company expects a better performanc­e for the financial year ending June 30, 2021 due to a strong order book.

Redplanet had a Rm34.45mil order book with more than 65% to be delivered as at July 31, 2020.

“We believe there is potential for the applicatio­n of GIS in the developmen­t of solutions for smart cities, the Internet of Things (IOT), mobile mapping and autonomous cars,” he stated.

Redplanet chairman Lian Wah Seng said about 70% of the company’s contracts were in Malaysia, with the rest overseas.

He also said the company’s projects were mainly in power utilities, followed by the telecommun­ications industry, and O&G sector.

“We have projects in the Philippine­s and Singapore, so we plan to expand in these countries too,” said Lian.

The company has also identified the utilities, infrastruc­ture and agricultur­e industry verticals for its entry and expansion in Australia.

Under the listing exercise, Redplanet raised Rm3.59mil from the placement of 19.93 million shares at 18 sen per share to selected investors.

Of the total IPO proceeds, RM500,000 (13.9%) will be used to study GIS applicatio­n in machine learning, artificial intelligen­ce (AI) and IOT, and developing software related to asset identifica­tion and management.

Another Rm2.02mil (56.2%) will be working capital to strengthen its staff force and finance day-to-day operations; RM220,000 (6.1%) for office renovation while the remaining RM850,000 (23.7%) is to defray listing expenses.

It stated in its website that its mission was to assist its customers make unique, enduring and meaningful improvemen­ts in their performanc­e and in that process build a company that entices, exhilarate­s and engages exceptiona­l people.

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