This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on June 3, 2024 - June 9, 2024
AQUAWALK Sdn Bhd, a private company controlled by entrepreneur Datuk Simon Foong that owns and operates Aquaria KLCC in Kuala Lumpur, is gunning for a listing on Bursa Malaysia’s ACE Market as early as the first quarter of next year, sources say.
It is expected to be the region’s first oceanarium operator to go public.
Sources say the company hopes to make a formal submission to Bursa Malaysia in the thir d quarter. “It hopes to list on the Ace Market in the first quarter of next year,” a source tells The Edge, adding that the company has hired an investment bank as its advisor.
Aquaria KLCC is a state-of-the-art aquarium that features thousands of marine exhibits in 60,000 sq ft of space at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. Aquawalk also owns Aquaria Phuket, the biggest aquarium exhibit in Thailand, and has a 30% stake in Jakarta Aquarium & Safari (JAQ) in Jakarta.
When contacted, Foong confirms that Aquawalk is working towards getting listed on Bursa Malaysia in the near future, but he declines to provide details.
According to Foong, all three aquarium businesses are profitable. Aquaria Phuket opened in August 2022 and JAQ commenced business in March 2017.
“So, we already have three different but very good projects that can be included once we go for an IPO (initial public offering). We’re currently also looking at a few prospective oceanarium projects in Asean,” he says.
Aquawalk also has a 24% stake in Blu Restaurant Sdn Bhd, a company with exclusive rights to open Burger & Lobster restaurants in Malaysia and several other markets in Asia; a 70% stake in Adventuria Sdn Bhd, operator of an adventure hub and virtual reality experiences; and a 100% stake in aquarium designer and builder Aquablu Technologies Sdn Bhd.
Blu Restaurant is soon expected to be sold to InNature Bhd (KL:INNATURE), operator of The Body Shop in Malaysia, Vietnam and Cambodia), for RM21.25 million cash in a related-party deal. According to a stock exchange filing by InNature on May 10 about the proposed deal, Aquawalk stands to receive RM5.1 million from the sale. It will, presumably, use the proceeds for its expansion.
The plan to list Aquawalk has long been on the cards. In an interview with The Edge in June 2018, Foong said he was aiming for an IPO in 2020. The pandemic threw a spanner in the works, however, and it took some years before visitors returned to the aquariums in force.
According to Foong, Aquaria KLCC, which opened in 2005, currently draws a good mix of locals and tourists. “The tourists are slowly coming back,” he says.
A check on its Companies Commission of Malaysia filing via CTOS shows that, as at its latest financial filing for the year ended Dec 31, 2022 (FY2022), Aquawalk’s revenue of RM78.81 million and profit after tax (PAT) of RM24.85 million were at their best in at least five years. The company appears to be in a better financial position now than before the pandemic.
In FY2018, Aquawalk’s PAT stood at just RM5.57 million and slipped into a net loss of RM6.42 million in FY2019. In FY2020, when Covid-19 struck, its net loss deepened to RM23.41 million and then narrowed to RM19.37 million in FY2021 before the company returned to profitability in FY2022. Its PAT margin stood at a solid 31.53% in FY2022, compared with 10.05% in FY2018.
According to sources, Foong’s plan was to list on the Main Market but, because of the pandemic, it lacked the profitability track record required for a listing there — hence the decision to list on the ACE Market.
Foong currently has a direct stake of 4.5% in Aquawalk. He and his wife, Datin Mina Cheah-Foong, managing director of InNature, have an indirect interest of 71.2% in Aquawalk through their holdings in other companies.
The IPO market has been decent this year. As at May 31, there were 19 listings on Bursa Malaysia — 14 on the ACE Market, four on the Main Market and one on the Leap Market.
Last year, there was a total of 32 listings — 24 on the ACE Market, seven on the Main Market and one on the Leap Market. A total of RM3.6 billion was raised from new listings in 2023 versus RM3.5 billion in 2022.
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