Songmart, the subsidiary of Catalist-listed Mercurius, has officially opened five grocery stores in Johor Bahru and Kluang in Malaysia on Sept 16.
Another five more stores have been slated to open by the end of October. The addition of the stores will see the group having a total of 23 stores in its portfolio by end October.
Mercurius, on July 12, 2021, had acquired the entire issued share capital of Songmart for a total consideration of $36 million. The acquisition is expected to be completed in October.
Songmart is principally engaged in the business of trading of foodstuff, groceries, sundry goods and daily necessities, as well as the operation of mini-marts, convenience stores and supermarkets under the “Songmart”, “Songmart Express”, “Granville” and “G Grocery” brands.
“We are excited about the pace of expanding our supermarket business in Malaysia with the opening of these new stores. We hope to gain even more growth momentum in the coming months, and believe that Songmart is well positioned to become one of the major groceries business operator in Malaysia,” says Chang Wei Lu, Mercurius’ executive chairman and CEO.
Separately, the group is pleased to announce that Songmart has secured a RM33.18 million ($10.3 million) loan facility from Alliance Bank which will be used mainly for the partial refinancing of the 37 properties owned by Songmart, of which 30 are freehold titles, and also for working capital purposes.
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“We have achieved yet another significant milestone with this facility from Alliance Bank. More importantly, we are grateful for their support and confidence in our business plans. Looking ahead, we hope to expand the supermarket business beyond Malaysia shortly,” Chang adds.
As at 4.40pm, shares in Mercurius are trading 3 cents higher or 6% up at 5.3 cents.
