- Offers 26 million Placement Shares at S$0.30 each
- Gross proceeds of S$5.5 million from the issue of New Shares to fund development of the Group’s Business Intelligence and Growth Analytics segment, expansion into new geographic markets, as well as digitalisation of existing operations to improve service offerings
- Intends to recommend and distribute dividends of 50% of profit attributable to equity holders of the Company in respect of FY2021 and FY2022
SINGAPORE, 14 September 2021 – Audience Analytics Limited (“Audience Analytics” or the “Company”, and together with its subsidiaries, the “Group”), an enabler and growth partner to businesses, today launched its initial public offering (“IPO” or the “Placement”) of 26 million shares (the “Placement Shares”), comprising 18.2 million new shares (“New Shares”) in the Company and 7.8 million vendor shares, at S$0.30 per share (the “Placement Price”), in conjunction with its proposed listing (the “Listing”) on the Catalist Board of the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited (the “SGX-ST”).
The Placement represents approximately 15.5% of the enlarged share capital of 168.2 million shares of Audience Analytics and based on the Placement Price, Audience Analytics’ market capitalisation will be approximately S$50.5 million post Placement. The Placement will close at 12.00 noon on 28 September 2021 and the listing and trading of Audience Analytics’ shares is expected to commence on a “ready” basis at 9.00 am on 30 September 2021.
ZICO Capital Pte. Ltd. is the Sponsor and Issue Manager, while Stirling Coleman Capital Limited is the Placement Agent for this IPO.
About Audience Analytics
Established in 2002 with subsidiaries in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore, Audience Analytics offers a wide range of solutions that helps businesses in multiple sectors better understand their business, make better decisions, promote and grow their business. Through its core business segments, the Group offers a wide portfolio of awards, exhibitions, conferences, digital and print media, and business analytics that enables it to support its customers at different stages of their business lifecycles.
Audience Analytics currently has three business segments comprising (i) Business Impact Assessment and Recognition (“BIAR”); (ii) Business Media; and (iii) Exhibitions. The BIAR segment is the Group’s main revenue contributor and is involved in business impact assessments on companies to assess their business performance leading to the business recognition awards organised by the Group. Having been around for more than a decade, the majority of the Group’s awards namely the HR Asia Best Companies to Work for in Asia Awards, SME100 Awards and Golden Bull Award, are well-established and have a regional presence that extends into 13 markets across Asia.
In 2018, the Group developed a proprietary HR analytics named “Total Engagement Assessment Model” (“TEAM”) to provide accurate and timely data to human resource professionals for them to better understand and optimise their workforce. The Group intends to launch this as its fourth business segment – Business Intelligence and Growth Analytics (“BIGA”) – via a Software as a Service (“SaaS”) model in the third quarter of 2021.
The Group’s Business Media segment owns and publishes business-to-business (“B2B”) media titles such as SME Magazine, HR Asia, Capital Asia《资本》, Logistics Asia, Energy Asia and CXP Asia. The Group also organises business events and forums such as the SME CEO Forum, Inspired SME, Future HR, and SME Solutions Expo. In line with digitalisation, the Group has also adapted its business to include online portals for each of its business media brands thus increasing the Group’s exposure and extending its reach to a wider audience. The Group has also partnered with Dow Jones to contribute news content and data to Dow Jones’ research platform known as “Dow Jones Factiva”.
The Group’s Exhibitions segment is involved in organisation of large-scale exhibitions including the Malaysia Career & Training Fair, Mega Career Fair and Post Graduate Education Fair, offering companies the opportunity to increase their audience engagement and brand awareness.
Over the years, the Group has built an established reputation and track record within its industry and has demonstrated resilience and adaptability during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Group has been able to cater to the evolving needs across different growth stages for its diverse customer base through its suite of complementary products across all three business segments. Furthermore, due to the nature of the Group’s business, profitability is not materially dependent on any particular commercial or financial contract with customers and the Group does not have any material capital commitments.
Audience Analytics is led by an experienced and dedicated key management team. Co-founders of the Group, Chairman and Managing Director, Datuk William Ng (吴恩明) (“Datuk Ng”), and Executive Director, Dato’ Ryan Ooi (黄剑峰), have over 22 years and over 19 years of relevant experience respectively.
Datuk Ng said, “With extensive experience in each of the core business segments under its belt, the Group has acquired the necessary expertise and experience in each of them. Our diverse range of products and services supports our customers through every stage of their business growth cycle. Over the years, we have built a strong market reputation with our customers. In particular, our business impact assessment and recognition segment has consistently attracted award applications from Fortune 500 Companies and multinational corporations. Our asset-light business model enables us to swiftly scale our operations in response to market conditions and we believe there is no single competitor in Asia Pacific which competes with our Group holistically in every business segment and geographic location having a similar track record.
“We hope to use the funds raised through this IPO to enhance our business analytics capabilities including incorporating AI technology and predictive analytics into our business intelligence and growth analytics segment, further expand our geographical footprint and digitalise our existing business operations to help us capture greater opportunities.”
Business Strategies and Future Plans
Audience Analytics plans to use its gross proceeds of approximately S$5.5 million to fund the strategic development of its business segments—in particular, the Business Intelligence and Growth Analytics segment, to expand into new geographic markets, industry verticals and functional specialisations, and to digitalise its existing operations.
To grow its business analytics capabilities, the Group intends to reinforce its technical team, build big data capabilities, and develop AI and predictive analytics capabilities through collaboration with third party technology partners and/or building its in-house AI/technology team.
The Group also plans to replicate its success with existing products into new markets across Asia and introduce new products to support businesses in other industry verticals and functional specialisations. The Group also plans to grow its business through acquisitions, joint ventures, and strategic alliances.
Datuk Ng said: “The unprecedented challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic made 2020 an extremely tough year for businesses everywhere. However, it has also brought to light the resilience and adaptability of our business. Amidst the pandemic, there has been a growing demand for investments in data and analytics to achieve digital and business goals. With more companies adopting a hybrid workforce model, our services have become more relevant than ever for employers to better understand their workforce. With many countries in Asia Pacific re-opening their economy cautiously, we are optimistic that business events and activities will also start to recover in tandem.”
Proposed Dividends
While the Company currently does not have a fixed dividend policy, the Directors intends to recommend and distribute dividends of 50.0% of its profit attributable to equity holders of the Company for FY2021 and FY2022.
Financial Highlights
The Group registered a total revenue of S$7.6 million and net profit after tax (“NPAT”) of S$2.9 million for the year ended 31 December 2020 (“FY2020”), as compared to total revenue of S$8.4 million and NPAT of S$2.3 million in the preceding year (“FY2019”).
The year-on-year (“YOY”) decline in total revenue was largely due to the postponement of an exhibition that resulted in a decrease in revenue from the Exhibitions segment. This was partially offset by an increase in revenue from the BIAR segment due to the launch of existing awards in new markets and the introduction of a new award in FY2020. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the Group has successfully transitioned from organising physical events to virtual events during the year, which resulted in higher gross profit margin of 65.7% in FY2020 compared to 43.8% in FY2019.
Datuk Ng said: “Along with the continued growth and investments in Asia Pacific’s Exhibitions and BIAR industries from which we derive more than 90% of our revenue in the last 3 financial years, there is also rising demand for big data and business analytics solutions in the region, which is expected to reach US$41.7 billion by 20241. This is driven by businesses’ need for quicker and better decisions, increased analytics capabilities, and improvement in the hiring and talent retention process. Although the COVID-19 situation remains fluid, we are optimistically confident that our industry’s potential for growth, our asset light model and our ability to adapt quickly to circumstances will allow the Group to remain competitive.”
