PETALING JAYA: Harps Holdings Bhd has decided not to proceed with its proposed initial public offering (IPO) on Bursa Malaysia’s Main Market due to unfavourable market conditions.
The listing exercise of the glove manufacturer and distributor involving a total of 2.6 billion shares via institutional and retail offerings, was expected to take place by end-2021.
Harps founder, managing director and CEO Haziq Zairel Oh said the decision considered feedback during the investor engagement process, in particular broad-based investor sentiments and hesitancy over the Malaysian glove sector, coupled with the outlook for it (that differed) from the time the company submitted its IPO application to the regulators.
“We have made this very difficult decision not to proceed with the proposed listing despite obtaining the approval from the Securities Commission on June 21, 2021,” he said in a statement today.
After considering the interests of all stakeholders and various discussions with shareholders, board of directors, principal adviser and joint global coordinators, the group believes this is the most appropriate decision for Harps at this juncture.
“We continue to maintain a positive outlook on Harps’ future and are focused on steering Harps to be a market leader in the glove sector. We will continue to push ahead with our growth plans, which includes increasing our total annual installed capacity to 19.5 billion gloves by end 2023,” he said.
