Agricore made a strong debut on the ACE Market this morning at 79 sen, a premium of 29 sen over its initial public offering (IPO) of 50 sen, with 6.83 million shares traded.

CFO Lim Swee Chuan said the division has been heading towards double-digit growth since it started in 2020.

“That division has grown quite rapidly. In the first year, revenue was RM1.1 million, then it jumped to RM8 million and reached RM12 million last year,” he said during a press conference, held in conjunction with the company’s listing today.

Meanwhile, marketing manager Daniel Tan announced that Agricore plans to participate in international exhibitions starting this year to strengthen its presence in the overseas market.

“We have plans to go to Vietnam in October and next year, we plan to go to China and the Middle East to boost our sales,” he said.

Agricore has managed to raise RM25.9 million from its IPO exercise, and the proceeds will be mainly utilised to purchase inventory amounting to RM18.9 million to support its business growth.

It said in a statement that RM2.7 million will be allocated to expand its storage capacity by setting up a new regional storage facility in Klang, Selangor to enhance the efficiency of its business operations and increase market presence in the food ingredients industry.

“Meanwhile, RM0.6 million will be allocated to recruit additional staff for the Bukit Minyak premises and RM3.7 million to defray estimated listing expenses,” it said.

Upon listing, its market capitalisation will stand at RM101.4 million, with an enlarged share capital of 202.8 million shares.

As at 2pm, Agricore’s share price was up by 38.5 sen or 77% at 88.5 sen, giving the group a market capitalisation of RM 180 million.