Malaysian Titan Chem's IPO may be slower-than-expected

08 February 2005 04:36  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (CNI)--The initial public offering (IPO) of Malaysia's Titan Chemicals may be pushed back from the expected date at end-March, industry sources told CNI on Tuesday.

The exact IPO date will depend on how soon Titan can secure an approval from the Securities Commission to list on Bursa Malaysia, a company spokeswoman said.

The company, which was formerly known as Titan Petrochemicals & Polymers, submitted its application for a public listing at the end of December 2004.

"The ball is now in the court of the Securities Commission. We've done our part, and it is now out of our hands," she said. "It would normally take an average of about three months for the Securities Commission to approve an application."

Industry sources said that the companies usually take another one to two months to launch their IPOs after receiving the approval. They also said that Titan's IPO would be one of the largest in terms of value in Malaysia this year.

The spokeswoman declined to comment on the value of the IPO or whether the company was prepararing for the upcoming IPO roadshows.

In November last year, the company appointed Commerce International Merchant Bankers (CIMB) and Goldman Sachs (Singapore) as global coordinators for its IPO. Maybank Securities and DBS Bank have been appointed joint book runners for this proposed exercise.

The company owns and operates two crackers at Pasir Gudung in Johor with a combined capacity of 690 000 tonne/year, as well as an aromatics unit with a benzene capacity of 130 000 tonne/year, a toluene capacity of 70 000 tonne/year and a mixed xylenes capacity of 23 000 tonne/year. It also operates two co-generation plants, tank farms and utilities.

Titan is a joint venture between PNB Equity Resource Corp, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Permodalan Nasional, and the Chao Group International.

By: Edgar Ang
+65 6780 4359

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