MACROKIOSK still eyeing listing opportunities

Macro Kiosk Bhd, a short messaging service (SMS) gateway provider, is still exploring opportunities to go public, either at home or abroad, after dropping a plan to float its shares on the Mesdaq Market of Bursa Malaysia about two years ago.

Chief operating officer Henry Goh said apart from Malaysia, it is considering listing its shares either on London’s Alternative Investment Market or exchanges in Hong Kong, Singapore and Vietnam.

“Valuation was what stopped us from going ahead with the previous initial public offering plan (IPO). We’d probably got in at the wrong time when market sentiment was not so good,” he told a media briefing in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

Henry said its merchant banker, CIMB Investment Bank, is still scouting for suitable bourse or plans for Macro Kiosk to tap the capital market, including a reverse takeover or mergers and acquisitions.

“We do not want to list in a very manipulated environment and are looking for a market that can continue to give us good valuations,” he said.

Henry was quick to add that the company is in no hurry to list its shares, given its strong cashflow.

“We have been financing all the expansions through internally-generated funds,” its chief executive officer Kenny Goh said.He said the company has not set a time frame for the IPO, but a stock listing is an ultimate aim for the company to reward shareholders as well as raise money for future growth.

Macro Kiosk is a 70 per cent-owned subsidiary of main board-listed Goldis Bhd. The balance 30 per cent is owned by the Goh brothers, who manage the firm.

The company made RM2 million in net profit for the financial year ended January 2006 on revenue of over RM38 million.It has so far exceeded last year’s earnings, Kenny said.

He said much of its earnings have so far been reinvested into the company to grow its business, and it is spending quite a bit to develop its young workforce, whose ages average between 27 and 28 years old.

Macro Kiosk, which has offices in seven Asian cities including Bangkok, Beijing, Singapore and Hong Kong, recently forged direct links with all mobile operators in the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

With that, Macro Kiosk will have direct connectivity to a total of 60 mobile operators in Asia. Companies that need to deliver messages to mobile operators and collect payment for mobile services in this region can do so through Macro Kiosk, Kenny said.

“Our speed of growth is relatively fast, having penetrated three markets in a year. This kind of momentum should continue and we aim to be a global firm in five years,” said Kenny.