July 15, 2016: Green Lagoon Technology Sdn Bhd (GLT), the first company to raise funds on equity crowdfunding (ECF) operator Crowdplus.asia’s platform, has surpassed its MYR800,000 ($202,120) target.
The green technology company provides solutions for bio-gas harvesting, storage, treatment, and carbon reduction monitoring for palm oil mills.
Its targeted funds of MYR800,000 raised translates to a stake of 6.5 per cent. The funds will be used for increasing its stake in two existing 1MW biogas plants located in Pahang to 40 per cent each. The remaining 60 per cent is owned by Khazanah Nasional unit, Cenergi SEA.
With the crowdfundraising, the company has achieved a post-money valuation of MYR12.2 million, based on a price-to-earnings multiple of 4.5 on the forecast net profit after tax for the financial year 2016. In a news report, the company had also expressed ambition to list on the UK, Australia or Hong Kong.
As the investment interest in GLT on the ECF platform had been overwhelming, chief operating officer Raymond Cheah said the company will approach Crowdplus.asia about starting the new round of fundraising earlier.
“Once the maximum limit has been set, which in the case of this first round is MYR800,000, any excess cannot be added, hence we will have to reject some of the subscribers. However, we are planning on further rounds soon, and these investors will be invited to submit their subscriptions in the following rounds,” he said.
Cheah explained the decision to go the ECF route for funds had come after months of seeking funds through other means did not work out.
He noted that raising through ECF had taken the company less than three months. Cheah said, GLT will continue to seek funds through ECF in the future. “We would like to raise further funds to start our new biogas-to-power projects, and also to fund our new business ventures.”
GLT is looking at the next phase of growth for its business, positioning itself not only for geographical expansion but also exploiting other waste streams such as poultry farm manure wastewater and sago milling wastewater.
GLT was established in May 2010 when the founders, Cheah and chief executive officer Chan Sow Keong saw a huge gap in the biogas industry in Malaysia. The industry was largely dominated by foreign companies then.
“We realised that Malaysia was way behind many of the developed and developing countries in the implementation of biogas projects. Even in neighbouring Indonesia and Thailand, the biogas industry was way ahead of us, and all the while, the palm oil mills in Malaysia was not just only emitting the biogas (potent greenhouse gas) into the atmosphere, but was also losing out on a potential revenue source from renewable energy,” Cheah shared.
Source: http://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/47407-47407/, 15 Jul 2016
