China’s XingHe impresses in debut on Bursa Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR: XingHe Holdings Bhd, the first company from China to be listed on Bursa Malaysia this year, closed at double its reference price of 11 sen yesterday, despite the negative press Chinese companies listed on the bourse have had in the past year or so.
Xinghe, which is looking for revenue growth of 10% in 2014, opened at 25 sen yesterday morning, which was 14 sen or 127% higher than its reference price of 11 sen. The counter closed at 22 sen, with some 54.5 million shares traded making it one of the most active stocks on the bourse yesterday.
XingHe made its debut on the ACE Market of Bursa Malaysia yesterday, after completing a RTO of Key West Global Telecommunications Bhd. There are 10 Chinese companies listed on the stock exchange, XingHe is an edible vegetable oil and peanut protein cake producer.
Its managing director Ma Guo Liang said the projection was based on expecations that the peanut oil industry in China will grow between 5% and 10%, from its estimated market consumption of between 2.4 million tonnes and 3.3 million tonnes in 2012, to between 2.8 million tonnes and 4.3 million tonnes in 2015.
For the financial year ended December 31, 2012, its subsidiary Henan XingHe registered a 26.22% growth in net profit to RMB134.66 million (RM65.78 million), on revenue of RMB1.49 billion (about RM728.32 million).
Based on the share sale agreement signed for the RTO, Testa Holdings Ltd, which is XingHe's controlling shareholder with a 62.39% stake, has guaranteed a profit of RMB135 million (about RM74.14 million) for each of the three financial years 2013, 2014 and 2015.
It has also set a dividend payout policy of 15% of its net profit for 2014, 2015 and 2016.
Founded in 2002, the Henan province-based XingHe is mainly involved in the production, mixing, processing and marketing of edible vegetable oil as well as peanut protein cake in the China domestic market.
Distributed by 12 distributors in eight provinces and cities in China, the market share of XingHe's peanut oil production in China is estimated to range from 2.4% to 3.6% in 2012, while its market share in Henan province was about 12.1% to 18.2%.
Ma said XingHe sees potential in Malaysia becoming the regional hub for its business in Southeast Asia and intends to introduce its edible vegetable oil and products here.
"Going forward, we will further expand our footprint in China as well as exploring business opportunities in Malaysia and the Southeast Asian market," he said.
The group is currently scouting for sites for a new plant here, which it expects to be done by the first half of 2015.
"We will kick start the project by middle of next year, but not to the extent of production," Ma said.
XingHe has a current capacity of processing some 240,000 tonnes of peanuts annually, transforming peanuts into peanut oil as well as peanut protein cake in China.
The new plant in Malaysia is expected to contribute an additional capacity of 100,000 to 150,000 tonnes annually, starting from 2016 onward.
The listing of XingHe also comes with a private placement of 15.67% stake to selected investors, which raised some RM60 million for XingHe, as RM40 million of which will be spent for the marketing and branding activities.
The group's cash position stood at RMB100 million.