Asia Media eyes Main Market listing

ASIA Media Group Bhd, the country's largest transit-TV network operator, will seek regulatory approval to move to the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia.

The ACE Market-listed company plans to do so by the second quarter of this year, its controlling shareholder Datuk Ricky Wong Shee Kai said in an interview with Business Times.

"We already have people working on the plan, drafting the proposal. If all goes well, we should be able to make a submission by April this year," Wong added.

He reckoned that it will take about two months for Bursa to make a decision on the matter.

"Going to the Main Market will give better valuations and reward shareholders who have been with us from day one," said Wong.

Wong, who is also chief executive of Asia Media, controls some 45.61 per cent of the company.

He added that Main Market-listed companies are able to fetch higher price-to-earnings valuation, and easier to place out shares to institutional funds.

"If you are on ACE market, certain funds might have investment restrictions. We have to be realistic on our goals and market condition," said Wong.

Asia Media is on an expansion drive and needs fresh capital to help fund the expansion, which is part of the country's economic transformation programme.

As part of the plan, Asia Media plans to invest as much as RM500 million to develop the country's first transit-TV infrastructure by 2015.

The project will contribute RM604 million in gross national income (GNI) and 400 jobs by 2020.

Such a project will require a lot of funds, which could be obtained from bank borrowings, bonds issuance, internally generated funds or new shares issuance.

Analysts feel that Asia Media's best bet of raising funds is to go to the Main Market, or via bank borrowings, private placements or using its own cash.

Asia Media now has RM12.58 million in cash as opposed to RM968,000 a year ago, its latest accounts for the financial year ended December 31 2011 revealed.

For the financial year in question, Asia Media posted a pre-tax profit of RM15.24 million versus a pre-tax profit of RM10.28 million a year ago.

"I am not satisfied with the profit level. I think we can do better than that. This year, our internal target is to grow the pre-tax profit by at least 30 per cent," said Wong.

An increase of 30 per cent over the 2011 pre-tax profit means that Asia Media could post a pre-tax profit of about RM20 million in the current financial year.