This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on May 4, 2026 - May 10, 2026

EIGHT months after its debut on the ACE Market of Bursa Malaysia, clean room engineering specialist iCents Group Holdings Bhd (KL:ICENTS) reports that business momentum remains robust, despite global geopolitical uncertainties.

The group, which has a market capitalisation of RM190 million, had RM70 million worth of orders in hand as at end-March. Riding on the surge in data centres in the country, its order book is expected to exceed RM100 million in the next one to two months, says managing director ­Vincent Ong Mum Fei.

The strong pipeline comes amid a huge wave of data centre investments across Southeast Asia, driven by the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence and cloud computing.

About 80% of iCents’ order book is derived from the data centre and semiconductor sectors, its core revenue drivers. The remainder comes from the pharmaceutical, life sciences, and food and beverage industries, which also require the use of clean rooms — highly controlled or specialised environments where pollutants like dust and airborne microbes are filtered out — in their manufacturing processes.

“We did not see any major impact [from geopolitical tensions] on the business … Our works are still ongoing and enquiries are still coming in,” Ong tells The Edge in an interview.

While Malaysia remains its main market, the group is seeing increasing demand from Indonesia and Thailand, says Ong. Its regional footprint is largely client-driven.

“The players are all the same. When they move to Thailand or Indonesia, they bring us along,” he says, adding that the group cannot disclose the names of its clients due to non-disclosure agreements.

iCents, which has in-house design and manufacturing capabilities, positions itself as a total solutions provider rather than as a traditional contractor. “We are not a contractor. We provide end-to-end solutions, from design to manufacturing and installation,” Ong says.

The group recently secured a RM14 million job in Indonesia to supply data centre systems to a multinational construction company undertaking a data centre project there. With that, iCents’ overseas operations — currently a small portion of its total revenue — are projected to contribute 15% to 20% by the end of FY2026 and potentially 30% to 40% within the next two years.

Apart from the data centre-related jobs, iCents is seeing growing signs of recovery in the semiconductor segment, based on the rising number of enquiries it has been receiving from semiconductor clients in Malaysia, especially memory chip makers. “The semiconductor (segment) is coming back because data centres need a lot of chips, especially memory chips, which are currently in short supply,” says Ong.

Executive director Foo Siang Leng says technological advancements in chip-making are also increasing the need for greater clean room capacity, fundamentally changing factory layouts. “In the past, only a small portion of a factory required clean room space but now almost the entire facility is a clean room due to higher technological requirements,” he adds.

As a result of these developments, iCents is targeting 10% to 15% revenue growth for FY2026 and is bullish on growth in FY2027. “FY2027 will be a different story. We are quite optimistic on revenue growth [being] better than FY2026,” says Ong.

The group’s optimism is also supported by an expansion in its manufacturing capacity. Post-listing, iCents’ production capacity jumped to about 3,000 sq m per day, from 300 sq m per day previously.

Aluminium and steel are key raw materials for the group, which produces clean room fixtures such as aluminium honeycomb and rockwool sandwich panels for walls via its in-house production arm, Maytech Technologies Sdn Bhd. It also manufactures the bag-in-bag-out or BIBO filter systems, which are critical for use in industries that handle hazardous materials.

Despite rising costs, the group says the impact has been manageable so far. In fact, iCents is confident of defending its gross profit margins, which have improved from 11.68% in the financial year ended June 30, 2022 (FY2022), to 24.6% in the first six months of FY2026.

This confidence is supported by the group’s stockpiles, its ability to pass on cost increases to customers and the availability of alternative materials, says Ong. “At this moment, we have not seen any big impact. But we are monitoring closely. When there is an increase in raw material [prices], we will inform our clients and look for alternatives.”

The group also mitigates risks through local sourcing and the ability to substitute raw materials, such as switching between aluminium and steel when necessary. “In Malaysia, there are a lot of aluminium suppliers. So far, we do not have any issues in getting them,” Ong says.

Aluminium prices surged to a four-year high of over US$3,500 per tonne in March, Bloomberg data shows, after rising nearly 40% from US$2,507 over the past one year.

Brent crude oil prices, meanwhile, spiked to over US$120 per barrel following supply concerns after the eruption of the US-Iran war that resulted in the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. While Brent had eased to US$114 at the time of writing, it has jumped 87% since the start of the year.

After its initial public offering last July at 24 sen per share, iCents’ share price rose to as high as 51 sen in September. Last Wednesday (April 29), the stock closed at 38 sen.

Ong describes the company as ­“undervalued” relative to its growth prospects. However, according to AskEdge, iCents is trading at a price-earnings ratio of 40.7 times — the highest in its peer group.

For the first six months of FY2025, the group made a net profit of RM2.03 million on the back of RM36.82 million in revenue. This follows a full-year FY2025 net profit of RM7.85 million on revenue of RM81.56 million.

EIGHT months after its debut on the ACE Market of Bursa Malaysia, clean room engineering specialist iCents Group Holdings Bhd (KL:ICENTS) reports that business momentum remains robust, despite global geopolitical uncertainties.

The group, which has a market capitalisation of RM190 million, had RM70 million worth of orders in hand as at end-March. Riding on the surge in data centres in the country, its order book is expected to exceed RM100 million in the next one to two months, says managing director ­Vincent Ong Mum Fei.

The strong pipeline comes amid a huge wave of data centre investments across Southeast Asia, driven by the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence and cloud computing.

About 80% of iCents’ order book is derived from the data centre and semiconductor sectors, its core revenue drivers. The remainder comes from the pharmaceutical, life sciences, and food and beverage industries, which also require the use of clean rooms — highly controlled or specialised environments where pollutants like dust and airborne microbes are filtered out — in their manufacturing processes.

“We did not see any major impact [from geopolitical tensions] on the business … Our works are still ongoing and enquiries are still coming in,” Ong tells The Edge in an interview.

While Malaysia remains its main market, the group is seeing increasing demand from Indonesia and Thailand, says Ong. Its regional footprint is largely client-driven.

“The players are all the same. When they move to Thailand or Indonesia, they bring us along,” he says, adding that the group cannot disclose the names of its clients due to non-disclosure agreements.

iCents, which has in-house design and manufacturing capabilities, positions itself as a total solutions provider rather than as a traditional contractor. “We are not a contractor. We provide end-to-end solutions, from design to manufacturing and installation,” Ong says.

The group recently secured a RM14 million job in Indonesia to supply data centre systems to a multinational construction company undertaking a data centre project there. With that, iCents’ overseas operations — currently a small portion of its total revenue — are projected to contribute 15% to 20% by the end of FY2026 and potentially 30% to 40% within the next two years.

Apart from the data centre-related jobs, iCents is seeing growing signs of recovery in the semiconductor segment, based on the rising number of enquiries it has been receiving from semiconductor clients in Malaysia, especially memory chip makers. “The semiconductor (segment) is coming back because data centres need a lot of chips, especially memory chips, which are currently in short supply,” says Ong.

Executive director Foo Siang Leng says technological advancements in chip-making are also increasing the need for greater clean room capacity, fundamentally changing factory layouts. “In the past, only a small portion of a factory required clean room space but now almost the entire facility is a clean room due to higher technological requirements,” he adds.

As a result of these developments, iCents is targeting 10% to 15% revenue growth for FY2026 and is bullish on growth in FY2027. “FY2027 will be a different story. We are quite optimistic on revenue growth [being] better than FY2026,” says Ong.

The group’s optimism is also supported by an expansion in its manufacturing capacity. Post-listing, iCents’ production capacity jumped to about 3,000 sq m per day, from 300 sq m per day previously.

Aluminium and steel are key raw materials for the group, which produces clean room fixtures such as aluminium honeycomb and rockwool sandwich panels for walls via its in-house production arm, Maytech Technologies Sdn Bhd. It also manufactures the bag-in-bag-out or BIBO filter systems, which are critical for use in industries that handle hazardous materials.

Despite rising costs, the group says the impact has been manageable so far. In fact, iCents is confident of defending its gross profit margins, which have improved from 11.68% in the financial year ended June 30, 2022 (FY2022), to 24.6% in the first six months of FY2026.

This confidence is supported by the group’s stockpiles, its ability to pass on cost increases to customers and the availability of alternative materials, says Ong. “At this moment, we have not seen any big impact. But we are monitoring closely. When there is an increase in raw material [prices], we will inform our clients and look for alternatives.”

The group also mitigates risks through local sourcing and the ability to substitute raw materials, such as switching between aluminium and steel when necessary. “In Malaysia, there are a lot of aluminium suppliers. So far, we do not have any issues in getting them,” Ong says.

Aluminium prices surged to a four-year high of over US$3,500 per tonne in March, Bloomberg data shows, after rising nearly 40% from US$2,507 over the past one year.

Brent crude oil prices, meanwhile, spiked to over US$120 per barrel following supply concerns after the eruption of the US-Iran war that resulted in the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. While Brent had eased to US$114 at the time of writing, it has jumped 87% since the start of the year.

After its initial public offering last July at 24 sen per share, iCents’ share price rose to as high as 51 sen in September. Last Wednesday (April 29), the stock closed at 38 sen.

Ong describes the company as ­“undervalued” relative to its growth prospects. However, according to AskEdge, iCents is trading at a price-earnings ratio of 40.7 times — the highest in its peer group.

For the first six months of FY2025, the group made a net profit of RM2.03 million on the back of RM36.82 million in revenue. This follows a full-year FY2025 net profit of RM7.85 million on revenue of RM81.56 million.

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