Pharmaniaga Bhd has completed two key milestones of its regularisation plan (RP), placing it on track to exit its Practice Note (PN17) status by the first quarter of next year.
In a bourse filing today, the pharmaceutical group announced it successfully completed a renounceable rights issue and private placement, two of the three critical components of its RP.
With the fundraising initiatives done, the last leg of its journey out of PN17 – a classification for financially distressed companies – is a capital reduction exercise slated for completion by mid-August.
Pharmaniaga found itself tumbling into PN17 status in February 2023 after booking a massive impairment caused by its failure to offload RM552 million worth of Covid-19 vaccines.
The company said the rights issue involving 3.46 billion shares was fully subscribed with a 26% oversubscription rate, reflecting “strong support from existing shareholders”.
The rights issue was executed on the basis of 12 rights shares for every five existing shares held as of July 2, 2025.
Concurrently, the private placement raised RM223.7 million with the issuance of 1.66 billion new shares, attracting participation from 19 new investors.
With the completion of the exercise, its total issued share capital expanded to 6.56 billion units, from 4.9 billion previously.
Despite this new equity injection, the Armed Forces Fund Board (LTAT) and its subsidiary Boustead Holdings Bhd remain the group’s major shareholders with a combined stake of 43.9%, with each holding 8.7% and 35.2% respectively.
Focus of attention
Pharmaniaga took centre stage on Bursa Malaysia today, emerging as the most traded stock with 218.5 million shares changing hands.
Buoyed by the listing of the new shares today, the counter rose 12.5% or two sen at 4.27pm, valuing it at RM882 million. Year to date, the shares have fallen 49%.
In an X posting today, managing director Zulkifli Jafar said the oversubscription of its rights issue “reflects deep market recognition of our business fundamentals, recovery plan and leadership”.
“The participation of the 19 new institutional and reputable investors in the private placement exercise is a clear endorsement that aligns with our broader objective of contributing to Malaysia’s healthcare resilience and pharmaceutical self-sufficiency,” he added.
However, Pharmaniaga did not provide details on who these new investors were.
Zulkifli said the strengthened balance sheet will allow it to reduce borrowings and scale up operations, particularly in areas such as the development of human insulin, vaccines, and generic drugs.
The health ministry has awarded Pharmaniaga a seven-year concession ending June 30, 2030, to handle procurement, storage, supply, and delivery of medical products to public sector customers.
