Singapore’s Uni-Fuels Holdings raised $8.4m in gross proceeds after pricing New York’s first IPO by a bunker company in nearly two years.
The marine fuels company, controlled by Koh Kuan Hua, priced the offering of 2.1m shares at $4 apiece.
With underwriting discounts and commissions, net proceeds came out to $7.81m, according to a securities filing.
Its IPO is the first since Malaysia’s CBL International raised $13.3m in March 2023.
Uni-Fuels’ shares were listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market on Tuesday under the ticker symbol UFG.
Underwriters have options to purchase a further 315,000 shares, which could take total gross proceeds to $9.66m.
The company said it plans to deploy some of its new cash for growth.
“Uni-Fuels intends to use the proceeds from the offering for scaling up its reselling activities to gain market share from existing and new markets, for strengthening its workforce and expanding its market presence in new geographical locations, and cash reserve and general corporate purposes,” it said.
New York investment bank RF Lafferty served as sole book-running manager.
Uni-Fuels was founded in 2021 and is a seller of very low-sulphur fuel oil, high-sulphur fuel oil and marine gasoil.
Securities filings show that public shareholders will have 6.5%, while chief executive Koh has 70.6% of the shares. Pre-IPO minority shareholders have 22.8%.
But Koh holds powerful Class B shares that give him nearly 96% of the voting power, leaving public shareholders with just 0.9%.
According to the offering prospectus, Uni-Fuels’ status as a “controlled company” means it can elect not to comply with some corporate governance requirements of the Nasdaq.(Copyright)
