Lotte Chemicals ends first day lower

All eyes were on the newly-listed Korean-linked chemicals company as the planning of their IPO continues to hit road bumps.

LCT initially priced their IPO shares at RM8.50, but revised downwards after gauging sentiment from public.

And while institutional investors over subscribed the IPO portion, the retail portion was undersubscribed and only 61% was taken up.

Meanwhile, the FBM KLCI dropped 2.1 points or 0.1% on losses in index-linked stocks like Tenaga Nasional Berhad and CIMB Group Holdings Bhd.

Investors are still concerned over the suspected cyberattack that hit Bursa Malaysia as local traders reported that their services were interrupted last week.

These investors are also sizing up newly listed performers such as LCT and is trying to make sense of the current market sentiment.

Earlier today, Lotte Chemical Titan Holding Berhad president and chief executive officer Dr. Lee Dong Woo said LCT has been able to achieve significant improvements in its operations and profitability following the acquisition by Lotte Chemical Corporation, or LCC, in 2010.

“The proceeds raised from the IPO will be used to drive expansion plans in the ASEAN region further,” he said at the listing ceremony at Bursa Malaysia.

In this light, LCT outlined key utilization plans from the IPO proceeds which includes the development of an integrated petrochemical plant in Indonesia, construction of a new polypropylene plant in Johor, and upgrades to their naphtha cracker to increase production of ethylene, propylene, and BTX.

Dr. Lee said that “our joint venture with LCC for the U.S. Shale Gas Project to construct an ethane cracker plant in the United States will expand our revenue streams”.