SINGAPORE – Shares of Nanofilm Technologies International surged above its initial public offering (IPO) price in its debut on Friday (Oct 30), in Singapore’s biggest non-Reit listing in recent years.

The stock was trading up 12.7 per cent at $2.92 from its IPO price of $2.59 as of 9.28am, with a hefty 65 million shares changing hands.

Its IPO met with strong demand from both institutional and retail investors by its close on Wednesday.

The Singapore public offer to retail investors was about 30.6 times subscribed, attracting 8,678 applications for 118 million shares for a total $305.7 million in application cash, the company announced on Thursday (Oct 29). There is only 3.9 million shares available to the public.

The 73.4 million international placement shares available to investors outside the US drew indications of interest for about 1.68 billion shares, making it approximately 22.9 times covered.

The offering as a whole – public and placement tranches – was 23.3 times subscribed by its close on Oct 28, assuming an over-allotment option is not exercised.

The Singapore public offer and international placement shares at $2.59 apiece came from existing shareholders of the company, Dr Shi Xu, Mr Lee Liang Huang and Dr Wei Hao.

Separately from the offering, 13 cornerstone investors – including Temasek Holdings’ Venezio Investments, Aberdeen Standard Investments (Asia), AIA Investment Management and Lion Global Investors – have subscribed for some 104.3 million shares worth $270 million. They represent a 15.8 per cent stake in the company after the completion of the offering as well as the issuance and sale of the cornerstone shares.

The company – which makes advanced materials and nanoproducts for the consumer electronics, communications and automotive industries – will have a market value of just over $1.7 billion. With gross proceeds of some $470.1 million raised, its IPO is one of the largest on the Singapore Exchange in recent years, excluding those from real estate investment trusts.

Said Dr Shi Xu, who is Nanofilm’s executive chairman: “As the first nanotechnology solutions provider to list in Singapore, this is a strong vote of confidence for our group and a recognition of our established track record and growth plans.”

Some retail investors were disappointed by the small size of the offer available to them. The retail tranche of the IPO accounted for just 2 per cent of the $470.1 million raised. Market observers told The Business Times the small public offer was warranted, given the lack of local benchmarks to gauge the success of the IPO.