PropNex Realty’s CEO, Ismail Gafoor.
PropNex Realty, Singapore’s biggest homegrown property agency, held a successful initial public offering (IPO) that attracted strong investor interest, according to an SGX filing on Friday (29 July).
Overall, its shares were 2.2 times oversubscribed. There were 1,796 valid applications for the 2.125 million shares offered to the public, with retail investors seeking a total of 52.24 million shares. This translates to a subscription rate of 24.6 times.
More: PropNex Realty aims to raise $40m in IPO
Similarly, the 40.375 million shares offered via private placement to institutional investors were fully purchased, in addition to 8.5 million over-allotted shares.
Singapore Business Review reported that cornerstone investors in the IPO consist of Nikko Asset Management Asia Limited, which agreed to buy 6.1 million shares. Value Partners Hong Kong, Samsung Asset Management (HK) and Affin Hwang Asset Management agreed to subscribe 7.5 million shares each, while NTUC Income Insurance Co-Operative and FIL Investment Management (Hong Kong) acquired 9.05 million and 12.35 million shares respectively.
PropNex’s shares were priced at 65 cents apiece and it plans to use the net proceeds of $38 million to fund its local and regional expansion via acquisitions, mergers and joint ventures.
Aside from working capital purposes, it also intends to utilise the proceeds to improve its real estate brokerage business, provide more services and enhance its technological capabilities.
The shares are expected to be listed on the Singapore Exchange today.
PropNex has 7,248 agents as at 6 June. It also had the top market share of 42.7 percent for newly launched residential projects last year.
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Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
