KUALA LUMPUR: Wasco Greenergy Bhd is targeting regional growth and rising biomass demand as it launched its IPO prospectus for a Main Market listing.
The company aims to raise RM75 million from the initial public offering, mainly for expansion, operational upgrades, research and development, and listing costs. Upon listing at an issue price of RM1 per share, Greenergy is expected to have a market capitalisation of RM500 million.
Speaking at a press conference in conjunction with the prospectus launch recently, Greenergy CEO Lee Yee Chong said Indonesia will be a key market post-listing, supported by a stronger after-sales network and growing interest in biomass energy solutions.
He said the company already operates two branches in Indonesia and intends to add two more service centres to strengthen accessibility and response time.
“We are very much involved in Malaysia and Indonesia. It consists of 90% of our market within this context,” Lee said. “Our major business is after-sales because we have a lot of equipment that requires continuous servicing. Adding more branches will give us better accessibility and faster response time for customers.”
He added that Indonesia’s palm oil industry, which controls more than half of the global market share, positions it as a major growth market for biomass-based power solutions due to the abundance of feedstock.
“For the next few years, biomass energy is going to pick up in Indonesia just because of the abundance of feedstock,” he said. “We can see Malaysia leading in this area with policy changes like FIT and carbon tax, and Indonesia will follow. Singapore is another market where the high carbon tax creates opportunities.”
Part of the expansion proceeds will be used to scale Greenergy’s renewable energy business, particularly a model that provides “clean steam” to industrial complexes using biomass waste collected from palm mills.
Lee explained that while palm oil mills traditionally use biomass internally, industrial manufacturers such as food and beverage players are now seeking ways to reduce Scope 1 emissions.
“In the past five years, we have taken biomass waste from the palm oil industry and used it in industrial complexes where they can reduce carbon emissions,” he said.
“Some customers can invest themselves, but many are not familiar with palm biomass fuel. So we offer options they can own the system or we can invest and operate it for them. They buy clean steam the same way we buy green electricity.”
Responding to a question on market share, Lee said Greenergy maintains strong positions in Malaysia and Indonesia for non-utility steam turbines, holding more than 68% share in Indonesia. However, its biomass boiler share remains below 5%. The company plans to grow this segment by pushing its engineered, industrial-grade boilers beyond the palm oil mill market.
“We pride ourselves as an engineering outfit. We don’t just do standard boilers. We want to introduce our specialised boilers to industrial users to help them decarbonise. For standard palm mill boilers, the market is large. Indonesia produces 50 million tonnes of palm oil compared to Malaysia’s 20 million tonnes so there is ample opportunity to raise our share.”
Lee said the company also sees emerging demand in Indonesia’s growing sugar industry, though palm biomass remains its core strength.
