<article>The first food and beverage special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in Malaysia, Red Sena Bhd, is gunning to raise MYR400 million ($114.1 million) from its initial public offering (IPO).</article>

The first food and beverage special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in Malaysia, Red Sena Bhd, is gunning to raise MYR400 million ($114.1 million) from its initial public offering (IPO).
The company will offer 800 million new shares at an issue price of MYR 0.50 each, which entail 800 million free detachable warrants with exercise price of MYR 0.50 each, on the basis of one warrant for every one new share.
Upon its listing, Res Sena will have a market capitalisation of MYR500 million, based on the issue price of MYR0.50.
According to the prospectus exposure on the Securities Commission of Malaysia, Red Sena’s IPO shares consist of an offer of 80 million public shares and 720 million shares under a private placement to selected investors. The total new shares make up approximately 80 per cent of the company’s enlarged share capital.
The remaining 20 per cent, or 200 million shares and warrants, is held by Raintree F&amp;B Sdn Bhd, the promoter and substantial shareholder of Red Sena.
Red Sena, running on the business model of a SPAC, intends to make its qualifying acquisition (QA) in a branded packaged F&amp;B (food and beverage) business within the processed F&amp;B industry.
Gearing to become a regional player, it will be targeting established businesses which are in a growth phase and have operations in one of the company’s target countries &#8211; Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines.
“We will consider a QA that is involved in branding and marketing only, or in branding and marketing and some combination of the other two key areas. We will also consider a QA that is involved in manufacturing and wholesale distribution,” the company said in its draft prospectus.
SPACs are companies which have no operations or income-generating business at the point of its IPO, but undertake a listing for the purpose of acquiring operating companies or assets, known as the QA.
Red Sena’s promoters will be subject to an extended moratorium period, up to three years of making its QA.
Red Sena has already raised MYR10 million from the Raintree, which entered into a share subscription agreement with Red Sena for the 20 per cent shareholder in October this year.
As for the utilisation of its IPO proceeds, it will set aside 92 per cent of the proceeds in a cash trust account to be administered by a custodian for the QA.
The company further said that its QA “shall have a collective fair value of at least 80 per cent of the aggregate amount then held in the cash trust account”.
The balance of IPO proceeds will be placed with licensed financial institutions and will be utilised to defray listing expenses and then as working capital.
After completion of the QA, the remaining funds from the IPO Trust Proceeds may be utilised for, among others, Red Sena’s future acquisition, if any, and working capital purposes.
The management of Red Sena consists of former personnels from Fraser &amp; Neave Holdings Bhd (F&amp;N). They include Tan Ang Meng, Joseph Tan Eng Guan, Koh Kin Lip, Ismail Abdul Halim and Ian Yoong Kah Yin.
Ang Meng, formerly F&amp;N chief executive officer and chief financial officer, is Red Sena’s chief strategy officer. He is also the current senior advisor for private equity firm Creador Sdn Bhd.
Joseph Tan will assume the role of chief executive officer at Red Sena. He retired from the F&amp;N Group as a chief financial officer in 2012.
Ismail, an executive director in biscuit company Khong Guan Enterprise Sdn Bhd will be chief financial officer while Yoong, formerly senior vice-president for the retail broking division in CIMB Investment Bank Bhd will be executive director, business development.
Koh, the founder of Rickoh Holdings Sdn Bhd is Red Sena’s corporate development director.
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Malaysia's SPAC Red Sena to raise $114m from IPO

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