The second-biggest Initial Public Offering this year, after Facebook, was Felda. For those of you not familiar with the name, it is the world’s third-largest palm oil company in terms of plantation acreage. Felda’s name comes from Federal Land Development Authority, the Malaysian
government department which controls it.
The IPO raised some US$3.1 billion and, unlike Facebook, whose shares fell right after listing, Felda’s have strengthened and, at the time of writing, were around RM5.40, roughly 20% above the initial offering price of RM4.55. Palm oil, whose price has more than doubled in the last ten years, is now the world’s most popular edible oil, with a 30% market share, ahead of soya bean oil which used to be number one.
Right after that launch, the government floated IHH Healthcare, the hospital operator for around US$2 billion. This is the third-largest global listing in 2012 and made Malaysia the largest IPO market in Asia, defying the trends in other markets. However, this is not expected to continue.
