In 2002, William Ng and Ryan Ooi founded a business in Malaysia focused on organising exhibitions, such as education and career fairs. As it flourished, the pair decided to formally incorporate the business as AIC Exhibitions.
Around the same time, Ng and Ooi also established a sister company, AIC Media, to publish lifestyle magazines. It was eventually rebranded as Business Media International (BMI), focusing on business-to-business (B2B) titles such as SME Magazine, HR Asia and Capital Asia.
Besides the magazines, BMI is perhaps best known for organising various business awards such as the SME100 Awards and the HR Asia Best Companies to Work for in Asia Awards. The awards segment accounts for more than 85% of its revenue over the last three years.
In its latest milestone, the group, through its new Singapore holding company Audience Analytics, is listing on the Catalist board of the Singapore Exchange (SGX), to raise funds to help drive new growth.
For Ng, the company’s chairman and managing director, listing under the Audience Analytics name rather than the more recognisable BMI signifies the company’s intent to expand beyond its existing business. “We combined the words ‘audience’ and ‘analytics’ which is where we believe our future lies,” he said in a media briefing on Sept 14.
The IPO, the fourth on the SGX this year, will offer a total of 26 million shares priced at 30 cents each, raising around $4.12 million in net proceeds. At the IPO price of 30 cents, it values the stock at 17.1 times FY2020 earnings, based on the post-placement earnings per share of 1.75 cents. The offer consists of 18.2 million new shares and 7.8 million vendor shares. With an enlarged share capital of 168.2 million shares, Audience Analytics will have a market value of around $50.5 million.
The company plans to devote more resources to build a new segment focused on business intelligence and growth analytics. To kickstart this new business, it plans to market an analytics tool that was developed using business insights and data it has garnered over the years throughout the course of assessing companies for its award events.
The tool, called Total Engagement Assessment Model (TEAM), is a human resource-focused software geared at helping companies understand the level of employee engagement within their organisations. “We are sitting on an extensive database of businesses, and moving forward, what the company really wants to do is to try and monetise this database,” Ng explains. The company will launch TEAM as a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) product in 3Q2021.
The funds raised from the IPO will be used for several other purposes. For example, $500,000 will be channelled towards the digitisation of the group’s existing business operations. Ng says this will include completing the migration of all its media titles towards a digital-only interface.
An additional $500,000 will be used for expansion into new geographic markets as well as industry verticals and specialisations, while the remaining $2.62 million will be used for general working capital purposes. Ng believes the proceeds raised will be “more than sufficient” to drive the group’s growth.
For FY2020 ended December 2020, Audience Analytics recorded earnings of $2.95 million, up 28.9% y-o-y despite an 8.8% decline in revenue from $8.35 million in FY2019 to $7.62 million as its exhibitions segment was impacted by Covid-19.
Ng attributes this to better performance from the business impact assessment and recognition segment, thanks to a successful transition to virtual events which resulted in a surge in gross profit margin from 43.8% in FY2019 to 65.7% in FY2020.
Ng and Ooi, who own the company through their investment vehicle Bain Equity, which is also the vendor for the placement, will see their stake reduced to 84.54% post-listing. They hold 60% and 40% stakes respectively in Bain Equity.
Audience Analytics’ offer will close on Sept 28, with trading expected to commence on Sept 30. Zico Capital is Audience Analytics’ sponsor and issue manager, while Stirling Coleman Capital is the placement agent.
Photo: Audience Analytics
