Ekuinas CEO Syed Yasir Arafat Syed Abd Kadir said the RM100 million fund will be parcelled off into portions ranging from RM10 million to RM30 million.
“We will target around five companies with a holding period of five to seven years, helping them leverage on opportunities to expand and scale-up. It will be a vigorous transformation for our investees,” he said.
The sector-agnostic fund is open to all sectors except construction, real estate, gambling and liquor.
He said the real estate and construction sectors were already crowded with other government-linked companies fighting for a slice of the pie.
To a question on whether there are plans to invest overseas like the Armed Forces Fund Board (LTAT), Syed Yasir said “At the moment our mandate only allow for Malaysian investments. It really depends on government policy going forward”.
Economy minister Rafizi Ramli said funds like Ekuinas are “very different from LTAT, Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) and Tabung Haji” which are more like conventional fund managers, whereas Ekuinas is a PE fund focused on growing Bumiputera companies and scaling up.
Asked about the proposed merger of Bumiputera investment funds, he said the ministry of finance is in the process of looking into the mandates on each fund and agency.
“We have to see how each of those objectives can be better addressed,” said Rafizi, who officiated at the launch.
Companies under Ekuinas
Ekuinas has deployed a total of RM4.4 billion into 24 companies through its direct investment programme, and another 18 companies via its outsourced fund management programme.
The first investee company under Dana Asas is Kaisar Farmasi owned by Eagle Cliffe (M) Sdn Bhd.
Eagle Cliffe, which began operations in 2013, has a chain of 19 Kaisar Farmasi outlets in the Klang Valley with a roadmap to expand to 100 outlets across Malaysia over the course of Ekuinas’ investment period.
This new investment brings Ekuinas’ portfolio of companies to 11, spanning the oil & gas, education, food and beverage, pharmaceutical and healthcare, technology, manufacturing and retail sectors.
Ekuinas was formed in 2009 to promote Bumiputera economic participation, investing in larger companies up till Dana Asas.
Among the companies under its stable include Al-Ikhsan Sports Sdn Bhd, Orkim Sdn Bhd, Icon Offshore Bhd and Medispec Sdn Bhd.