KUCHING: Dolphin International Bhd, which aims to list on the main market of Bursa Malaysia next Tuesday, anticipates strong demand from Sabah and Sarawak for its palm oil machinery.
As a company involved in the design, development, fabrication and sale of products for the palm oil milling machineries sector, Dolphin International is indeed in a unique position to tap into the many demands of the plantations sector.
Within Malaysia, Dolphin’s role mainly focuses on machineries and automation in palm oil milling.
As such, plantation owners, as well as commercial palm oil millers are key customers for the group, it told The Borneo Post in an interview yesterday.
“Dolphin started in 1992 by providing customised automation systems and its related services to assembly plants of various industries,” explained group managing director Eric Low Teck Yin yesterday.
“As our business grew, we evolved into a group delivering intelligent, innovative, environmentally friendly products/services and total solutions for palm oil mills.
“Over the years, we have developed and commercialised systems and products that have led to significant improvements in productivity, yields and safety in the work environment.”
This follows the group’s oversubscription of its initial public offering (IPO) by 6.17 times.
Its IPO offers 46 million ordinary shares at an issue price of RM0.68 per IPO share to raise gross proceeds of RM31.28 million.
Based on the issue price of RM0.68 per share for its IPO exercise, Low said Dolphin International will have a market capitalisation of RM150.96 million upon listing.
“We see strong demand from Sabah and Sarawak, where the planted palm oil hectarage has been growing steadily,” he highlighted.
“Our team has constantly engaged with palm oil millers in Sabah and Sarawak for business opportunities and some of some of our major customers are based in Sarawak.”
In Sabah and Sarawak, Peninsular Malaysia and Indonesia, Low said there are an estimated 1,000 palm oil mills with many not automated or modernised.
“These numbers provide huge market opportunities for Dolphin International,” he outlined.
Besides Malaysia, Dolphin’s products and services are exported to palm oil millers around the world namely Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, India and Colombia.
Notwithstanding the above, its principal markets are still the palm oil milling machineries sector of Malaysia and Indonesia.
“Thus, the market potential from Indonesia and Malaysia alone is truly substantial,” he said.
“The Independent Market Research Report estimated that in 2014, the palm oil mill machineries market in Malaysia and Indonesia were RM2.54 billion and 15.57 trillion rupiah respectively.
“This is expected to grow at a compounded annual rate of 11.4 per cent and 11.3 per cent from 2014 to 2019.
“Nonetheless, should there be an opportunity for growth and expansion in other regions, we will seriously consider and evaluate its financial and operational viability.
“In addition, we also see potential from other upcoming palm oil growing countries such as those in Latin America.”