KUALA LUMPUR (May 8): SkyeChip Bhd, which is set to list on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia on May 20, saw overwhelming demand from the investing public, with the 32.92 million public tranche of its initial public offer (IPO) shares oversubscribed by 95 times.

A total of 74,453 applications for 3.45 billion IPO shares were received from the Malaysian public, resulting in an overall oversubscription rate of 95.03 times. This translates to a total demand of RM3.04 billion, which was the biggest since the listing of PETRONAS Chemicals Group Bhd (KL:PCHEM) back in 2010, said Maybank Investment Bank on behalf of the group.

The IPO price has also been fixed at 88 sen per share for both the institutional and retail tranches. The pricing follows the completion of the institutional bookbuilding exercise on May 7. The retail offering closed on May 6. At 88 sen a share, the company will have a market capitalisation of RM1.6 billion upon listing.

Specifically, a total of 16,647 applications for 668.27 million IPO shares were received for the Bumiputera portion, representing an oversubscription rate of 36.21 times.

Meanwhile, a total of 57,806 applications for 2.78 billion IPO shares were received for the other Malaysian public portion, representing an oversubscription rate of 153.86 times.

For the institutional offering, all 264.67 million shares offered were fully taken up, according to Maybank Investment Bank.

Of these, 155 million shares, or 58.6%, were subscribed by 22 cornerstone investors, including Khazanah Nasional Bhd (via Pantai Feringgi Ventures Sdn Bhd), abrdn Islamic Malaysia Sdn Bhd and the Employees Provident Fund.

The remaining 109.67 million shares offered via book building attracted demand for 4.36 billion shares, representing an oversubscription rate of about 38.76 times.

SkyeChip is set to raise up to RM352 million from the issuance of 400 million new shares, with no offer for sale, valuing it at 44 times its FY2025 earnings. More than 60% of the proceeds, or RM211.5 million, will be allocated for research and development. 

The IPO comes at a time when Malaysia is seeking to move the semiconductor industry up the value chain and towards the more lucrative front-end from the lower-margin back-end services. 

Maybank Investment Bank is the principal adviser, lead bookrunner and managing underwriter for the IPO, as well as joint bookrunner and joint underwriter together with CIMB Investment Bank.