Company: Camaroe Berhad
Date of Prospectus: 31 July 2025

Camaroe Berhad IPO: Riding the Wave of Malaysia’s Premium Prawn Aquaculture Market

Camaroe Berhad launches its IPO on the ACE Market, offering investors an entry into Malaysia’s fast-expanding premium black tiger prawn industry. This comprehensive review explores Camaroe’s business model, financial strength, growth strategy, risk exposures, and valuation relative to listed peers, helping investors assess whether this seafood player is worth a closer look.

IPO Snapshot: Structure, Offer Details, and Use of Proceeds

Camaroe Berhad (IPO symbol undisclosed) is making its debut on the ACE Market with an offering that highlights a growth-driven agenda anchored in capacity expansion, technology, and working capital. The IPO structure and use of proceeds are designed to support significant scale-up in Malaysia’s high-value prawn farming sector.

Use of Proceeds:

• Capacity Expansion (New Bukit Raja Processing Facility): RM6.89 million
• Purchase of Machinery/Equipment: RM0.73 million
• Installation of Solar Panels: RM0.39 million
• Establishment of Biotechnology Department: RM1.00 million
• General Working Capital: RM0.96 million
• Estimated Listing Expenses: RM3.90 million

This capital allocation underscores a clear growth orientation, prioritizing expansion, technology, and sustainability, rather than deleveraging or legacy cost coverage.

Dividend Policy and Placement Breakdown

Camaroe Berhad does not have a fixed dividend policy. Historical payout ratios ranged from 19.2% to 51.3% between FYE2021 and FYE2024, with declared dividends of RM1.5–6.0 million annually and no dividend planned for FPE2025. Dividends are subject to Board discretion and business performance [[3]].

Placement Breakdown:

• Offer for Sale: 49.5 million shares (10% of enlarged share capital) via private placement, jointly by Teoh Han Boon and Low Saw Cheng.

Investor Participation and Book Quality

No information on anchor/institutional investors, oversubscription, or book quality is disclosed. The offer for sale component is fully by major shareholders, indicating a targeted private placement rather than a broad-based public allocation.

Deal Parties and Structure

Details on investment banks, underwriters, bookrunners, or stabilisation (greenshoe) features are not disclosed.

Business Overview and Model

Camaroe Berhad is a leading integrated prawn aquaculture group in Malaysia, focused on the farming, processing, and sale of premium black tiger prawns. Core activities include:

• Farming: Cultivation of black tiger prawns on 149 saltwater ponds across five farms in Selangor, Pahang, and Terengganu.
• Processing: State-of-the-art facility in Kapar, Selangor for live and frozen prawn processing, supplying product head-on, shell-on, or headless/peeled.
• Trading: On-demand sourcing and supply of vannamei shrimp, other seafood, and prawn feed (no inventory held).

Customer Base: Business-to-business (B2B) focus, with over 70% export sales in FYE2024. China is the largest export market (close to 50% of revenue), with other key destinations including South Korea, Taiwan, and Australia [[1]][[2]].

The company ceased vannamei shrimp farming after FYE2022 to focus on the higher-margin black tiger prawns segment.

Industry Landscape and Market Position

Malaysia’s black tiger prawn industry is growing steadily, with the wholesale market expanding from RM402.07 million in 2019 to RM686.88 million in 2024 (CAGR: 10.55%). Camaroe Berhad holds a 25.83% share of Malaysia’s overseas black tiger prawn exports (RM30.28 million out of RM117.25 million in 2024), a 1.39% share of the domestic wholesale market (RM9.55 million in sales), and 3.21% of national production volume (756MT in FYE2024) [[4]].

Competitive advantages:

• Integrated supply chain and processing capabilities enabling year-round supply and healthy margins.
• Compliance with key certifications: myGAP, GMP, MeSTI, HACCP, FQC.
• 15+ years of operational experience and an experienced management team.

Financial Performance and Health

Camaroe Berhad has demonstrated solid revenue growth, though margin pressures and volatile cash flows are evident.

Other key financial ratios:

• Current Ratio: Improved from 0.85 (FYE2021) to 4.22 (FPE2025), signaling stronger short-term liquidity.
• Gearing Ratio: Peaked at 0.54 (FYE2024), slightly reduced to 0.52 (FPE2025).
• Inventory Turnover: Slowed from 53 days (FYE2021) to 129 days (FPE2025), which may indicate working capital build-up or production cycle changes.

Peer Comparison and Valuation

Camaroe Berhad is attractively valued compared to most listed peers, with a PER of 8.59x and a notably higher PAT margin.

Growth Strategy and Capex Pipeline

Camaroe’s expansion blueprint is bold, targeting a significant scale-up in processing and R&D capabilities.

• New Bukit Raja Processing Facility: Construction (RM6.89 million) starts Q1 2026, completion expected Q1 2028. At least 100,000 sq ft with cold storage, solar panels, automation, and on-site laboratory.
• Processing Capacity Expansion: Five new chest freezers to increase annual processing from 684 MT to 1,539 MT.
• Biotechnology Department: RM1 million investment to drive quality control and develop proprietary probiotic/nutritional supplements, operational by Q3 2025 at Kapar, then relocating to Bukit Raja.
• Sustainability Initiatives: Solar panels (3,500 sq ft; RM0.39 million) for energy efficiency.

This aggressive capex signals management’s confidence in capturing rising demand for premium seafood across Asia-Pacific.

Risk Factors

Investors should weigh several key risks:

• Regulatory and Certification Risks: Business depends on continuous renewal of numerous certificates and permits.
• Operational Disruptions: Vulnerable to environmental events (e.g., RM5.64 million loss from 2021 flood).
• Biological and Supply Risks: Disease outbreaks, shortage of quality larvae, and reliance on third-party suppliers (up to 47.96% of total cost in recent years).
• Contracted Farm Reliance: Only one farm is fully owned; four others (67.46% of FYE2024 production) operate under agreements, creating renewal/termination risk.
• Foreign Exchange Exposure: Up to 84.61% of revenue in USD/RMB in recent periods, with no hedging contracts in place.
• No Long-Term Customer Contracts: Absence of long-term sales agreements exposes the company to demand volatility.

Ownership and Lock-ups

Post-IPO shareholding is concentrated among founders:

• Teoh Han Boon (Managing Director): 35.39% direct, 28.91% indirect
• Low Saw Cheng (Executive Director): 28.76% direct, 35.54% indirect
• Teoh Kheng Huat (Farm Manager): 6.08% direct

Lock-ups: Moratorium on entire shareholdings for 6 months post-listing, with at least 45% aggregate to be held for a further 6 months. Thereafter, a maximum of one-third can be sold annually on a straight-line basis [[2]].

Trends, Timing, and Market Environment

Industry growth is underpinned by rising seafood consumption in Malaysia and export markets:

• Seafood consumption CAGRs (2024-2027): Malaysia 5.87%, China 8.84%, South Korea 4.87%, Taiwan 4.32%
• F&B sector revenue CAGRs: Malaysia 5.29%, China 5.23%, South Korea 0.83%, Taiwan 3.20%
• Premiumisation trend: Rising demand for large-sized, high-quality black tiger prawns as a lobster alternative.
• Urbanisation and Convenience: Drives demand for frozen prawn products.

Timing: Listing on ACE Market, 2 October 2025. Application period and channels are not disclosed.

ESG Practices

Camaroe Berhad is committed to sustainability and corporate responsibility:

• Sustainable sourcing: Local procurement of larvae and feed.
• Water and waste management: Recirculating systems, efficient aerators, automatic feeders, sedimentation ponds, and probiotics to enhance environmental performance.
• Renewable energy: Solar panels at operations.
• Carbon sequestration: Tree planting initiatives.
• Certifications: myGAP, FQC compliance.
• Social and governance: Commitment to diversity, fair labor practices, anti-bribery, and whistleblowing policies.

Listing Outlook: Subscription, Valuation, and First-Day Prospects

With a forward-looking capex program, robust market share in exports, and peer-leading profitability, Camaroe Berhad enters the market with a compelling growth profile at an attractive valuation (PER 8.59x). The absence of a fixed dividend policy and heavy founder retention may temper some institutional appetite, but the supply/demand fundamentals in the premium prawn segment and the company’s proven execution support a positive first-day outlook.

First-day trading is likely to be firm, with the offer price (RM0.14) supported by strong sector trends, export growth, and well-defined expansion plans.

Prospectus Access

Investors can obtain the full prospectus at www.bursamalaysia.com.