KUALA LUMPUR: Ekuiti Nasional Bhd (Ekuinas) is committing RM100 million to its Dana Asas II fund to support more mid-market Bumiputera companies with high-growth potential.
This marks the second tranche of Dana Asas launched with a RM100 million fund in March 2023.
The state-owned private equity firm also aims to expand into private credit with an allocation of RM800 million, which will complement its existing private equity investment programme.
"This direct lending model will broaden the spectrum of financing from Ekuinas, complementing our existing private equity investments in supporting the growth and customised needs of high-potential and high-growth companies," said chief executive officer Datuk Syed Yasir Arafat Syed Abd Kadir in a statement today.
Despite a challenging 2023 due to the geopolitical and macroeconomic impact, Syed Yasir said Ekuinas is seeing its strategic investment and divestment efforts set in motion last year has come to fruition in the first hald of 2024 (1H 2024).
According to him, the firm's efforts in deal-closing crystallised in 1H 2024 where it hadcdivested 50. per cent stake in Icon Offshore Bhd in March, deployed capital from the Tranche IV Fund with an 80 per cent acquisition in Symbiotica Speciality Ingredients Sdn Bhd in April and committed 52 per cent of the capital for Dana Asas, with second investment from the fund in Mizou Holdings Sdn Bhd earlier this month.
"In our value creation agenda, Ekuinas intensified initiatives to strengthen and future proof our portfolio companies. This included ramping up digitalistion, creating innovative solutions to manage multiple customer touchpoints, from in-store to online platforms, such as social media and e-commerce," he added.
Since its establishment in 2009, Ekuinas' portfolio today comprises 43 companies via its direct and outsourced funds with a total of RM5.1 billion in economic capital deployed and a total investment of RM4.5 billion.
It continues to meet its Bumiputera equity target, achieving 1.6 times capital invested totaling RM6.4 billion, with an increase in total shareholders' value to RM8.1 billion, with 2.1 times capital invested.
Additionally, there has been an increase of 28.1 per cent in Bumiputera management and 15.2 per cent in Bumiputera employees since Ekuinas' entry.
For the year ended Dec 31 2023, Ekuinas' cumulative committed direct investment reached RM4.1 billion. The overall year-on-year revenue growth for the portfolio companies was 7.0 per cent.
Notably, Exabytes and Medispec achieved impressive revenue growth of 22.5 per cent and 15.4 per cent respectively.
Although the overall earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for portfolio companies contracted by 7.0 per cent Orkim recorded an EBITDA growth of 8.9 per cent, and Ekuinas' Education Group saw a remarkable 65.3 per cent increase in EBITDA.
In fulfilling social mandate through Iltizam, its corporate social responsibility arm, Ekuinas distributed RM13.8 million in 2023 across its entrepreneurship, education and community initiatives, benefiting 74,000 individuals, families, entrepreneurs and businesses nationwide.
This marks a significant investment, bringing Ekuinas' total expenditure under Iltizam to RM100 million since its inception in 2012.
