Creador-backed Eco-Shop, Tealive eye 2024 listings in Malaysia

MALAYSIA’s budget retailer Eco-Shop Marketing Sdn. and Loob Holding Sdn., which runs bubble tea chain Tealive, are aiming to go public next year as their private equity backer Creador Capital Group looks to build on its record of successful exits in the Southeast Asian country.

Eco-Shop is in the midst of finalizing its first-time share sale and is looking at listing in the second quarter of 2024, with Tealive scheduled for sometime in the final three months of next year, according to Creador Chief Executive Officer Brahmal Vasudevan.

“Eco-Shop does sales of close to 2.2 billion ringgit a year, with profits well north of 100 million ringgit, so that should be a good listing,” Brahmal said in an interview at his office in Kuala Lumpur.

Eco-Shop will be the third Creador-backed company to list on Bursa Malaysia since 2020, following debuts by home improvement chain MR DIY Group (M) Bhd. and credit bureau CTOS Digital Bhd.

The listing may provide a further impetus to Malaysia’s initial public offerings market, which hosted $512 million of first-time share sales so far this year, about an 8% increase from a year ago, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Creador has also convinced its latest portfolio company, the Malaysian pet food maker Pet World International, to pick Bursa Malaysia over Singapore’s exchange as its listing venue, as the country remains a “very good” IPO market, Brahmal said.

“We have a lot of captive capital, valuation multiples are good and there’s high demand from our local institutions,” he said. “We’ve demonstrated that Malaysia is a good market for companies that have a good growth proposition.”

Twenty one IPO stocks that debuted in Kuala Lumpur this year delivered an average gain of 49% since listing, more than twice the average increase for listings in Southeast Asia, data compiled by Bloomberg show. – Bloomberg