However, he said the company remains open to M&A within Asean to facilitate more seamless business integration.

“M&A proposals from the Philippines and Indonesia are on the table, but nothing is certain yet, as we sometimes receive opportunities in Vietnam as well,” he told reporters after the company’s annual general meeting today.

The company established a subsidiary, PT Duopharma Healthcare Indonesia, in the republic last year.

Regarding capital expenditure (capex) for this year, Leonard Ariff noted that the company would focus on investing in manufacturing assets, although this investment will be lower than last year’s.

“Moving forward, the manufacturing assets we invest in will be those that support our regional play,” he said.

Leonard Ariff shared that the company also intends to invest around RM150 million in biological assets and RM55 million to RM60 million in sterile assets.

Additionally, he said the company plans to allocate around RM50 million as capex to increase the capacity of its Highly Potent Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (Hapi) plant.

He added that while the company is open to investing overseas, its current investments are mainly focussed on the domestic market.

“Investments in biological, sterile and Hapi assets are domestic.

“At the same time, we successfully negotiated RM2 billion worth of sukuk last year,” he said.

He said the company had withdrawn about RM400 million and still has room for financing should it find appropriate opportunities overseas.

Duopharma established a programme for the issuance of Islamic medium-term notes (sukuk wakalah) up to RM2 billion in nominal value last year, with a 30-year tenure.

The first issuance was made in September 2023.