JCY seeks Bursa listing

By Jeeva ArulampalamPublished: 2009/12/09

The JCY group is a market leader in hard disk drive components and a leading precision engineering manufacturer of HDD mechanical components worldwide.


HARD disk drive (HDD) component manufacturer JCY International Bhd has submitted an application for a local listing to the Securities Commission (SC), CIMB Group's top official said.

"On behalf of JCY, we submitted an application for an initial public offering (IPO) yesterday. By today, the document should be available on the SC's website," CIMB group chief executive Datuk Seri Nazir Razak said.

The JCY group is a market leader in HDD components and a leading precision engineering manufacturer of HDD mechanical components worldwide.

It has operations in Malaysia, China and Thailand, employing more than 19,000 people.



JCY had initially planned to list in 2006, with news reports then saying that it could raise as much as US$500 million (RM1.7 billion) from its IPO.

It was also said then that CIMB had been appointed lead manager, while UBS and ABN Amro were co-arrangers.

When asked why JCY had delayed its listing, Nazir said the group decided at that point in time to increase its diversity first.

"It wanted to have greater diversity in its products and customer base," he said.

In its financial year ended September 30 2009, JCY recorded net profit of RM207 million on revenue of RM1.76 billion.

CIMB took up a small stake in JCY in 2006 and has invested some US$5 million (RM17 million) to date.

"That (investment) is part and parcel of the build-up and relationship it (JCY) started in 2001 as a banking customer," Nazir told reporters after witnessing the signing between JCY HDD Technology Sdn Bhd and co-arrangers CIMB Bank Bhd and UBS AG for a loan facility.Give the perfect gift this holiday season, Inspironâ„¢ 14



JCY HDD Technology, a wholly-owned unit of JCY, secured a US$50 million (RM170 million) term loan facility to be used for its business expansion.

Executive director Wong King Kheng said the unsecured facility, with a two-year tenure, will be used to finance the purchase of machinery and equipment as well as for working capital.

"We hope to utilise the loan to increase 50 per cent of our production capacity," Wong said. He declined to provide details.

Wong also declined to comment on its IPO application.

Meanwhile, Nazir said the banking group was a little disappointed with the government's proposal for an annual service tax of RM50 on each principal credit card and RM25 on a supplementary card.

"We have some reservation because we were hoping that the tax would not be necessary because at the end of the day, the idea is to reduce cash holdings and increase plastic and other forms of payments," he said, adding that the group will comply with the regulations.