KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 23): Sunway Bhd (KL:SUNWAY) said on Friday that its healthcare unit, Sunway Healthcare Holdings Bhd (SHH), has been granted approval to list on Bursa Malaysia with a reduced public float of 18%, below the standard 25% requirement.
Under the Main Market Listing Requirements, listed companies are required to have at least 25% of their total listed shares, excluding treasury shares, held by the public to ensure market liquidity. However, Bursa may accept a lower percentage if it is satisfied that sufficient liquidity will be maintained.
Such exemptions are rare but more common for large initial public offerings (IPOs), like Mr DIY Group (M) Bhd (KL:MRDIY), 99 Speed Mart Retail Holdings Bhd (KL:99SMART), and Eco-Shop Marketing Bhd (KL:ECOSHOP), which were allowed to list with lower public floats.
Sunway said in a filing with Bursa that SHH has been advised to use its best endeavours to increase its public shareholding spread over time.
SHH, expected to be among the largest IPOs this year, received approval from the Securities Commission Malaysia on Dec 5 for its proposed listing, which is targeted for the first quarter of 2026.
The IPO involves up to 1.97 billion shares, comprising an offer for sale of up to 1.39 billion existing shares, representing 12.1% of the enlarged share capital, and a public issue of 575 million new shares, or 5%, to retail and institutional investors.
SHH is currently an 84%-owned joint venture of Sunway City Sdn Bhd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sunway, with the remaining 16% stake held by Singapore-based Greenwood Capital Pte Ltd.
Ahead of the listing, SHH will undertake a pre-IPO share split, increasing its issued shares from 1.2 billion to 10.9 billion, with no impact on its share capital. Sunway City will subsequently distribute the shares to Sunway via a dividend-in-specie.
Sunway said proceeds from its portion of the offer for sale will be used to reduce borrowings and support working capital, while proceeds from the public issue will fund hospital expansions, construction of a new hospital and partial redemption of Islamic medium-term notes.