BCM posts 2.5-sen premium in debut on Bursa

KUALA LUMPUR: Laundry and medical imaging equipment distributor BCM Alliance Bhd, which made its debut on the ACE Market of Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd yesterday, closed its first day of trading with a 2.5 sen premium to 21.5 sen with 203 million shares traded.

Managing director Liaw Chong Lin said it is happy with the performance of its share price signifying investors’ confidence with the company.

“We’ll perform better by the end of this year compared with last year because we’ve new projects and new orders coming in,” he told a press conference after its listing ceremony here yesterday.

BCM distributes a range of commercial laundry equipment, medical imaging equipment as well as disinfection, sterilisation and surgical room products from various international brands. As at Aug 31, 2016, BCM has an outstanding order book of RM16.26 million, mostly from medical imaging equipment.

Liaw expects the company’s performance in the financial year ending Dec 31, 2016 (FY16) to remain favourable, anchored by strong performance from both commercial laundry equipment and medical devices business segments.

He said revenue from both of these segments are expected to be on par with each other this year, as well as in FY17 and FY18, from 60% laundry equipment and 40% medical devices last year, due to the RM25 billion allocation to the healthcare segment as announced in Budget 2017 that will augur well for BCM.

“For medical devices, we’ll increase the product range and we can get better and branded principals to support us (though BCM’s listing on Bursa Securities),” said Liaw.

He said Budget 2017 is a good budget for BCM and the people, adding that Budget 2017 is SME-centric and a perfect fit for BCM.

BCM has raised RM16.01 million from its initial public offering (IPO), where 18.1% will be used for the purchase of new commercial laundry equipment and medical devices, 20.1% to fund the day-today working capital expenses, 16.2% to set up a chain of 11 new Speed Queen selfservice launderette outlets as concept stores throughout Malaysia and the remaining 15.6% to defray listing expenses.

The company has declared a first interim single-tier dividend of 0.4 sen per share in respect of its FY16. The dividend amounting to RM1.69 million will be paid on Nov 21, 2016 to reward shareholders who have put their trust in BCM’s IPO.