PETALING JAYA: AME Elite Consortium Bhd shares made a strong debut on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia with a premium of 25 sen or 19.2% over its offer price of RM1.30.
Despite falling to a low of RM1.27 in the early trade, the counter was quick to rebound as much as 29 sen or 22.3% to a high of RM1.59 before ending the day at RM1.55 on 49.75 million shares changing hands, giving it a market capitalisation of RM662.03 million.
Managing director Kelvin Lee is upbeat on the Johor-based integrated industrial property solutions provider’s future prospects, targeting double-digit growth in profit for 2020.
Executive director Simon Lee elaborated that the optimistic view is based on the government’s announcement that approved foreign direct investments (FDIs) saw a 97% jump to RM49.5 billion in the first half of the year.
“As we are a proxy to FDIs and rolling investments in manufacturing, we hope to enjoy the benefits from this.”
This view is also supported by Affin Hwang Capital, which has initiated coverage on the counter with a “buy” rating and a target price of RM1.83.
The research house said in a report that the group is a beneficiary of the general rise in demand for industrial properties in Malaysia due to trade diversion amidst the ongoing US-China trade war.
Kelvin also noted that the “special channel” to attract investments from China established under InvestKL announced last week is expected to further boost the group’s future prospects.
“We have received a lot of enquiries as a result of the trade war and the government had announced in the Budget with a special channel to welcome trade war customers. We foresee we can benefit from all the good news.”
AME’s net profit jumped 96% to RM13.1 million for the first quarter ended June 30, 2019 against RM6.7 million a year ago.
With regards to the group’s planned expansion into Selangor and Penang, Kelvin said that it is still mulling the options.
“We are still looking for an ideal location with good connectivity and good price, hopefully we’ll have something by the end of the year.”
Currently, the group has over 130 acres of land bank with 108 acres in i-Park@Senai Airport City and over 30 acres at its industrial park in i-Park@Indahpura.
