Matco’s IPO book building from 23rd

KARACHI: Matco Foods Limited, a country’s leading rice exporter and processor, will hold the book building for its initial public offer (IPO) on January 23 and 24, a consultant’s statement said on Wednesday.

Arif Habib Limited, the issue’s consultant, said the issue consists of 29.143 million ordinary shares, accounting for 25 percent of the post issued paid-up capital of the company.

The entire issue will be offered through book building at a floor price of Rs26/share. Initially, 75 percent of the issue size or 21.857 million shares will be allotted to successful bidders and 25 percent of the issue or 7.286 million shares will be offered to retail investors at the strike price during the two-day general subscription starting from January 29.

Analyst Ahsan Mehanti at Arif Habib Corp said political uncertainty poses risk to the IPO. But, he hoped that the offer would completely be subscribed. “The political environment on the day of book building would determine whether the strike price would be any higher than the floor price of Rs26/share,” Mehanti added. “Even at Rs26 the share offers an attractive price earning multiple and we expect the share would appreciate by approximately 40 percent after it opens for trading at the bourse.”

Matco Foods Limited, Pakistan’s leading exporter of basmati rice, reaches over 60 countries around the world.

The company’s flagship brand Falak Basmati is prominent in more than 40 countries, through an extensive network of distributors internationally.

Matco has recently diversified its operation to specialised products: rice glucose and rice protein. The company has a production capacity of 10,000 million tons/year for rice glucose and 1,000 million tons of rice protein/year. The plants are operational.