Food Innovators ends Catalist debut at S$0.21, 4.5% below IPO price

JAPANESE food and beverage operator Food Innovators Holdings (FIH) made a lacklustre debut on the Catalist board on Wednesday (Oct 16), ending at S$0.21 or 4.5 per cent below its initial public offering price (IPO) of S$0.22 a share.

It opened at S$0.20 and traded as low as S$0.192.

FIH’s trading debut comes a day after the company announced that its IPO closed with 14 million of its new shares fully subscribed at S$0.22 apiece.

It comprised 13 million placement shares and one million public shares, representing 10.8 per cent of the company’s total number of shares.

There were 264 valid applications for a total of 6.3 million public shares. Since there were one million shares available to the public for subscription, this translates to a subscription rate of 6.3 times.

All 13 million placement shares were also fully allotted, including 47,000 shares to chief executive Yasuaki Kubota.

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The proceeds from the IPO will go towards funding the expansion of FIH’s food retail business within and outside Japan. It will also be used to purchase new Japanese food brands and for general working capital.

FIH, incorporated in 2019, has two main business pillars – food retail in Japan, Singapore and Malaysia, and restaurant leasing and subleasing in Japan.

Under food retail, FIH owns and operates restaurant concepts. It also helps Japanese food concepts expand into other markets.

FIH recorded S$1.4 million in net profit in FY2024, reversing from a loss of S$3.4 million in the preceding financial year. Its FY2024 revenue was S$43.8 million, up 10.3 per cent.

Its listing comes as another Catalist-listed restaurant operator, RE&S, is set to be delisted.

RE&S, which runs yakiniku chain Yakiniku-Go and doughnut chain Mister Donut, is expected to be delisted on Oct 17, after the company agreed to a buy-out offer from a unit of private equity firm Southern Capital Group.