KUALA LUMPUR (April 15): ACE Market-bound Manforce Group Bhd said it is eyeing to double its foreign worker management capacity as it taps into sustained labour shortages and rising employer demand.
The foreign worker recruitment firm currently manages about 6,000 workers, mainly in the services sector, which makes up more than half of its client base, while the rest are in manufacturing and construction.
“[We are targeting] 5,000 new quotas and an additional 1,000 from our existing manual labour quota. So with this additional 6,000, you can see that our expansion plan is really in a high-growth segment,” finance director Chin Kok Weng said at the prospectus launch.
Chin said the group remains a small player in a large market, with its current workforce under management accounting for about 0.3% of an estimated 2.1 million foreign workers in Malaysia, underscoring significant room for growth.
According to its prospectus, Manforce is priced at 38 sen per share to raise RM30.4 million, with RM14.74 million allocated to expand recruitment quota. The rest will go to IT and operational upgrades, working capital and listing expenses.
WATCH: Manforce to double workforce under management
Meanwhile, head of sales Wong Chen An said the group is working to secure additional quotas under the government’s open application window after the removal of the deadline for foreign worker intake.
The special application window was first announced on Dec 30 and was initially set to end on March 31 before the deadline was scrapped.
“We will continue to work in line with government policy on foreign worker quota applications,” he said.
Wong added that Manforce positions itself as a “one-stop solution” provider, offering services including hostel management, worker welfare, permit renewals, payroll administration and insurance.
He said the group has not seen meaningful demand disruption despite geopolitical tensions and rising oil prices, as employers continue to face labour shortages due to delayed inflows of foreign workers.