Executive director and CEO Lavernt Chen said RM8.93 million or 43.41% of the proceeds would be utilised for business expansion.

“Another 32.07% and 9.94% have been earmarked for the purchase of raw bird’s nests for raw unclean edible bird’s nests (RUCEBN) and working capital, while the remaining 14.58% will be used for IPO-related expenses,” he said during a media briefing and site visit to its factory here today.

Chen said the allocation of the 98.0 million new shares includes up to 19.3 million shares for the Malaysian public via balloting, with at least 18.7 million shares for eligible persons and up to 60 million set aside for selected investors by private placement.

He said the corporate exercise entails an enlarged share base of 386 million new shares representing 25.4% of the new total number of shares, as well as 74.6% of issued shares.

“Upon listing on the ACE Market, the company aims to have a market capitalisation of RM81.1 million based on the issue price of 21 sen,” he added.

Chen said RM8.05 million would be utilised for working capital and related capital expenditures to expand its existing headquarters and processing facility.

He said the expansion of the processing facility would enable MYMBN to increase its RUCEBN processing capacity, cater to its expansion into Vietnam, and house the operations of a new company to sell halal ready-to-drink bird’s nest products.

Commenting on the Malaysian market, Chen said there would be some room for expansion, but currently, China and Vietnam markets are the company’s key markets.

“We used to export to Hong Kong, but now we want to focus on China and Vietnam.

“It’s all about pricing at the moment. For now, China offers better pricing for the same type of quality. As for the Vietnam expansion, we will not see a big jump in revenue, but it will allow for diversification,” he said.

He added that as the demand for edible bird’s nests (EBN) is growing locally and internationally, it allowed MYMBN to capitalise on the current trend.

MYMBN has also allocated RM1.68 million to expand its bird’s nest collection centres by setting up three new centres in Sabah and Sarawak.

It was the first Malaysian company to obtain approval for the export of RUCEBN to China.

Applications for the public issue portion are open today and will close on July 10.

The balloting will be on July 13, while the allotment will be on July 21.