IPO ... B-Food

The vendor is offering 35.84 million shares of 50 sen each, or 25.35% stake in B-Food via its initial public offering (IPO) exercise. However, it did not state how much the vendor planned to raise or the time frame for the IPO to be completed.

The tranche consisted of 3.53 million shares to be offered to the Malaysian public, 3.53 million shares to the bumiputera public, 9.73 million shares for private placement to selected investors, and 14.13 million to bumiputera investors approved by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry. The remaining 4.9 million shares are offered to its directors, employees, and business associates of B-Food and its subsidiary.

Both B-Retail and B-Food are consumer plays, and offer exposure to Malaysia’s rising consumer spending. But as their names suggest, B-Retail is into retailing and B-Food focuses on food and restaurants. B-Food has a 100% stake in Berjaya Roasters (M) Sdn Bhd, which operates the chain of Kenny Rogers Roasters restaurants in Malaysia.
For the year ended April 30, 2010, B-Food posted a net profit of RM8.68 million on the back of RM60.42 million in revenue. After the acquisition of Berjaya Roasters, B-Food would have pro-forma total assets of RM50 million and total equity of RM40.18 million. Its cash and cash equivalent stood at RM16.24 million, with no borrowings.

As of July 2010, it has a total of 49 Berjaya Roasters restaurants in Malaysia.

The company said the gross proceeds from the offer of sale would accrue entirely to the offeror, and no part of the proceeds would be received by the company. The offeror will bear all expenses in relation to the listing. All expenses and fees incidental to the offer for sale, including fees to authorities, professional fees, printing and advertising fees, brokerage, commission, underwriting fees, placement fees and miscellaneous expenses, estimated to be approximately RM1.7 million will be borne by the offeror.