KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 28): Shares of PT Resources Holdings Bhd extended gains in active trade to close 12.16% higher on the second day after its Tuesday (Sept 27) debut on the ACE Market of Bursa Malaysia.

Shares of the frozen seafood producer settled up 4.5 sen higher at 41.5 sen on Wednesday (Sept 28), after touching an intraday high of 42 sen in the final hour of trading.

It was the top active counter on Bursa Malaysia for the second consecutive day, although volume slipped to 132.71 million shares, from 179 million on Tuesday. The company had offered 135 million shares for its listing exercise.

Concurrently, trading value slipped to RM53.13 million, from RM66.26 million on the day before.

At its close of 41.5 sen, the counter is up 5.5 sen or 15.28% from its initial public offering (IPO) price of 36 sen. At the closing price, the company is valued at RM222 million.

The continued uptrend followed its results announcement, which delivered 61% year-on-year rise in net profit for its first quarter ended July 31, 2022 (1QFY23), amid higher demand for frozen seafood products.

According to the group, 43% of its frozen seafood products are sold locally, behind China (44%), followed by Saudi Arabia (12%) and others.

Rakuten Research, in its Sept 28 report, said it expects PT Resources' FY23 net profit to come in at RM21.9 million or 4.1 sen per share, followed by RM25.4 million or 4.8 sen per share in FY24.

This is in anticipation of rising orders from its key overseas markets, China and the Middle East, it said.

"Production has been running at a 66.4% utilisation rate in FY22, suggesting it has capacity to ramp up production capacity to cater for higher orders," said the research house, which has a "buy" call with 43 sen.

"Currently, the group has a dividend policy to distribute 20% of its PAT (profit after tax) attributable to owners going forward," it added.

In 1QFY23, PT Resources' net profit rose 61% to RM7.52 million or 1.88 sen per share, from RM4.67 million or 1.17 sen per share a year ago, on the back of quarterly revenue rising nearly 56% to RM115.27 million from RM74.06 million.

PT Resources raised RM48.6 million from its IPO to construct a new cold storage warehouse to increase its storage capacity more than five-fold to 4,000 tonnes by 2025, from 700 currently.