MCOM'S SHARE SOARS 10.71 PER CENT ON LEAP MARKET DEBUT

KUALA LUMPUR, July 3 (Bernama) -- LEAP Market debutant, MCOM Holdings Bhd, saw its share price surged 10.71 per cent or three sen to 31 sen, at the opening this morning.

At 10.30 am, the share price stood at 31 sen, with 30,500 changing hands.

In a statement today, the digital marketing solutions provider said it planned to penetrate the Cambodian market and increase the automation level for its mobile advertising platform, following the listing exercise.

MCOM chief executive officer (CEO) and executive director Ho Kim Hun said the company had set up a data centre and network operating centre in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in June 2018.

“We started offering Internet services in Cambodia in 2018, which will complement our existing digital marketing solutions. 

"We believe this plan will not only increase our revenue stream, but also contribute to growth of the Internet infrastructure in Cambodia," he said. 

On plans to increase the automation level of its mobile advertising platform, Ho said with the upgrade of the mobile advertising platform underway, he believed it would enhance the features of MCOM's mobile advertising platform towards being fully automated, which subsequently allows for a fully automated interface between advertisers and publishers.

"Currently, our mobile advertising platform only allows customers to view settlement reports. To upload or modify new digital marketing campaigns, our customers need to send emails to our marketing personnel," he added.

To recap, MCOM was awarded a 30-year Internet service provider (ISP) licence and frequency licence  by the Telecommunication Regulator of Cambodia in 2016.

It had leveraged on a local fibre optic cable provider’s infrastructure in Cambodia to roll out wired and wireless Internet services.

With these Internet service infrastructures, MCOM will be able to localise its digital marketing solutions to meet consumer needs in Cambodia through the analysis of Internet and mobile usage patterns in the country.

The Internet penetration rate in Cambodia was 34 per cent in 2017 and the government  aims to improve this to 70 per cent by 2020. 

Under the listing exercise, MCOM raised RM5.28 million via the placement of 18,856,000 shares in MCOM at 28 sen per share to sophisticated investors. 

The company plans to utilise about RM2.90 million or 54.9 per cent raised from the placement as capital expenditure to set up essential facilities to offer wired and wireless Internet services in Cambodia.  

It will also utilise RM888,000 or 16.7 per cent from the proceeds to increase the automation level in the company’s mobile advertising platform, as well as enhance its mobile advertising solution infrastructure.

TA Securities Holdings Bhd is the approved adviser, placement agent and continuing adviser for the placement and the LEAP Market listing exercise.

As a 5.6 per cent-owned investee company of Malaysian Technology Development Corporation Sdn Bhd (MTDC), MCOM aims to be the leading digital marketing solutions provider, specialising in the mobile advertising platform and mobile payment solutions.  

Meanwhile, MTDC CEO Datuk Norhalim Yunus said the company would continue working together with MCOM and other investee companies to tap the Cambodian market.

"We want to use their presence in Cambodia and also the ISP from the country to bring other MTDC companies into the market there. 

"This is a strategy being used to develop companies and the ecosystem of MTDC companies and take them to the external markets,” he added.

-- BERNAMA