Latest news with #Chooi
The Star
2 days ago
- Business
- The Star
IPO market expected to improve in 2H25
Maybank Investment Bank regional head for equities capital market Raymond Chooi PETALING JAYA: Industry experts are upbeat that Malaysia's initial public offering (IPO) market will continue its buoyancy into the second half of this financial year (2H25) despite global uncertainties. Maybank Investment Bank regional head for equity capital markets Raymond Chooi told StarBiz he expects the momentum of IPO launches to continue and it would be possible to meet Bursa Malaysia's target of 60 listings for this year. 'The first half of 2025 saw increased volatility and caution with the FBM KLCI posting a decline of 6.7% and average daily trading volume in the market falling to RM2.5bil from RM3bil in 2H24. 'Further de-escalation in trade tensions is expected as there are clearer outcomes of trade negotiations. 'Locally, whilst individuals and businesses are adjusting to the impact of the sales and service tax's (SST) scope expansion, we believe the easier interest rate environment would help cushion any impact as well as improve liquidity that would eventually be positive for the equity market,' Chooi noted. From January to July 2025, there were 37 IPOs on Bursa Malaysia which raised about RM4.2bil, out of which six IPOs were listed on the Main Market, 28 on ACE Market and the remaining three on the LEAP Market. He highlighted that external developments remain a key factor on the country's economic performance. Unless there's a major shock globally, Chooi expects the IPO momentum for the second half to improve compared to the first half as there's still ample domestic liquidity. 'Companies with good growth track record and trajectory and firm growth plans and strategies are expected to continue to pursue their IPO plan in the second half of the year. 'Since March 2025, we have completed three Main Market IPOs during a volatile period and successfully sustained investors' interest throughout the process, he noted. Chooi said based on the latest filings (December 2024 to July 2025), he expects the IPOs in the second half to be primarily in the consumer, industrial, transport and logistics, energy and construction sectors. Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said the prevailing trend of IPO in 2025 thus far has been quite commendable. 'Nonetheless, the outlook for the global and domestic economy is likely to be challenging in view of the impending US tariff and geopolitical risks as well as the ongoing fiscal consolidation which would exert cost of doing business higher in the near term,' he noted. He said this could result in prospective companies who wish to go for listing feeling jittery as the equity prices might not get the right premium post listing based on the prevailing trend. 'While the market condition is part of the consideration for the IPO, there are also other factors such as capital structure, ownership goals, corporate readiness, strategic goals and regulatory environment. 'I suppose the IPO listing target of 60 could be achieved,' Mohd Afzanizam said. He added that sectors such as ports, healthcare, consumer and retail, industrial and manufacturing, technology and data centre, real estates and real estate investment trusts (REITS) are the possible ones that would dominate the IPO markets during the second half of the year. Deloitte Malaysia transactions accounting support partner Wong Kar Choon Meanwhile, Deloitte Malaysia transactions accounting support partner Wong Kar Choon said the IPO outlook in the country remains optimistic for the remainder of 2025, with 32 listings recorded as of June 30, 2025, putting Bursa Malaysia on track toward its full year target of 60 listings. 'However, the recent US trade tariffs and geopolitical tension have introduced uncertainty and we foresee that there could be an impact on the IPO market. 'Additionally, companies may delay their IPO plans, especially for export-driven companies that are affected by supply chain disruptions and cost pressures,' he said.
NZ Herald
29-04-2025
- Business
- NZ Herald
Passionfruit boost: NZ scientists team with Vietnamese farmers to future-proof production
Empowering Vietnam's farmers to harness passionfruit's high-value opportunities Agriculture made up about 11% of Vietnam's GDP and employed millions of farmers, growers and fishers throughout the S-shaped country of 100 million people with a coastline along the South China Sea. Aotearoa contributed to various international development programmes in Vietnam in recent years, including scientific projects in agriculture, which played a vital role in the Vietnamese economy following manufacturing. Passionfruit, known locally as chanh dây, was already a significant horticultural crop for Vietnam, with around 12,000 hectares cultivated last year, most of which was exported, earning around $371 million. The volume of these exports was expected to soar in the coming years, as Vietnam secured market access for passionfruit into Australia last year, was in negotiations for entry into the United States, and it gained access most recently to China, known for its strict biosecurity and pest control protocols. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade allocated $6.2m to the VietFruit project in March last year, aiming to increase Vietnam's exports of passionfruit - and in turn, support its agriculture sector to build climate and disaster resilience and develop a more skilled workforce. Taking VietFruit to the republic's female, ethnic minority farmers The VietFruit project was a partnership between Plant and Food Research and Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, plant nurseries and research institutions, the Southern Horticultural Research Institute of Vietnam (SOFRI) and the Northern Mountainous Agriculture and Forestry Science Institute (NOMAFSI). Senior scientist and project co-lead Dr Karmun Chooi said the team had spent more than two years working to understand cultivation and production of passionfruit, its threats, and the value chain. 'We're looking at how once we've harvested the fruit, how to transport that fruit and store that fruit so it's the best quality fruit for consumption in-country, but also exported,' Chooi said. 'We're just about to start the extension part of the project, so the biggest opportunity now is really delivering our best insights so far in the project to the industry.' She said they will work with seven groups of 10 Vietnamese farmers across the two provinces, with a focus on ethnic minority farmers and female-led farmer collectives, to carry out farm trials of various management techniques. Some trials will include ensuring high hygiene standards along the supply chain, enforcing strategic pruning similar to kiwifruit in New Zealand, appropriate agrichemical application and honing timing for planting and harvesting. 'We're able to provide them hopefully practical solutions that they can slightly change maybe the way they cultivate, just to improve - particularly for the ethnic minority - simple ways where they can improve the production to get higher yields and better quality fruit, so they're able to sell that or continue that on into the value chain, while increasing incomes back to their families and to the village,' Chooi said. 'We're also working with nurseries that supply the plant material to ensure that the highest health plants are actually provided to farmers, so they produce the best crops.' VietFruit objectives for passionfruit: Next was the development of a low-cost plant disease diagnostic tool to detect viral plant diseases, she said. 'So this is where we are hoping to be able to provide the nurseries but also other laboratories the ability to do these diagnostics.' Chooi said the goal was not to just give farmers protocols, but to improve their own knowledge bases so they could become 'their own scientists' and improve growing passionfruit and other crops. She hoped the insights would be useful to the wider horticultural industry. 'First, we'll work with innovation groups, then we'll also invite the wider extension, so some of the commercial companies, and nurseries that sell seedlings,' she said. Advertise with NZME. 'The best way for people to learn is through talking farmer to farmer, so we'll invite everyone and we'll have a big, open discussion and forum, hopefully within the next year.' Enabling climate-smart, resilient farming systems Climate change adaptation was a new pillar in the new comprehensive strategic partnership signed between New Zealand and Vietnam in February, in celebration of 50 years of diplomatic ties. Project co-lead and Plant and Food Research's international development programme manager, Stephanie Montgomery, based in Cambodia, said farmers in Southeast Asia were dealing with more unpredictable weather patterns due to climate change. She said the team explored ways to help 'buffer' farmers against changes to the typical wet and dry periods to ensure they maintained good volume and quality yields, like increasing cover cropping to protect against erosion or increasing water storage options. 'There are a lot of climate impacts, and generally we're seeing extended periods of either drought or flooding,' Montgomery said. 'We really look at the problem and see how pragmatically we could implement something that will benefit the farmers that they are able to adopt themselves.' Montgomery said they were trying to address climate impacts on passionfruit production in Vietnam's Sơn La and Gia Lai provinces, and seeking to improve climate resilience. 'In Sơn La, it's a very steep terrain, and the passionfruit is grown on the side of these very steep hills. 'There are a lot of issues around erosion in the wet season and lack of water in the dry season, access to market and trying to get the passionfruit down the mountain, especially in the wet season. So there are quite a few challenges. 'And then you go down to Gia Lai and they are still smallholder farmers, but slightly larger farms, more undulating, easier access, deeper and more fertile soils with high yield opportunities - but also constraints as well.' Montgomery said agriculture could have negative environmental impacts at times, but it was about striking a balance of protecting the natural resource while optimising food production and food security. 'There's a balance there, and it does change from system to system. In some of these areas, we do have large erosion issues which result from cropping the land and having soil exposed, so that is a negative impact of agriculture. But we do try to minimise and mitigate against that by having cover cropping, so the ground cover is really important.' She said there were knowledge gaps around nutrient and water use for some farmers in the two provinces. 'They either haven't learned about them or haven't had as much access to the knowledge about them as, say, we have in New Zealand and other areas. So it is a good knowledge base to start from and have a discussion about.' Montgomery said there was a willingness among Vietnamese farmers to be involved with their innovation groups and the wider project, many of whom were struggling with plant disease. '[Passionfruit] is an important fit in the farming system [in Vietnam] and there's definite interest in helping to optimise the production that comes from it,' she said. 'It, of course, has competition in the farming system from other high-value products, such as durian, which is the king fruit, coffee and other things, but it's often intercropped. 'I think the farmers are looking for answers as well because the virus is quite crippling in these vines.' She said the plant science team will regularly report back to the project's partners and check in with farmers on any progress once they have adopted new practices. 'You get that local lens that gives you the real practicality and truth of the matter, and then you work together from there to see what solutions we can devise together. 'So it's going well, but we've got a lot of work still to do.' Montgomery said the next milestone will be trialling new passionfruit washer prototypes currently being engineered. She will return to Vietnam in the coming months to progress work on the ASEAN climate-smart working group. Plant and Food Research worked with SOFRI from 2013 on a similar project, supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (between 2013-2021), to develop and breed new cultivars to increase the value of dragonfruit, its largest horticultural export.
RNZ News
29-04-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
NZ scientists share passion for high-value fruit with Vietnamese farmers
Passionfruit on the vine in Vietnam. Photo: SUPPLIED/P&FR New Zealand scientists are teaming up with more than 70 farmers across rural Vietnam to enhance and future-proof the production of passionfruit in the Southeast Asian republic. A team from Plant and Food Research had worked with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam on the Viet Nam Climate-Smart Fruit Value Chain project, known as VietFruit, for more than two years. In that time, the plant science team carried out field trials and surveys to understand and improve production and post-harvest practices of passionfruit in key growing regions, the Sơn La province in the republic's northwest and Gia Lai in the Central Highlands. Next, the New Zealand scientists will go to farms scattered across the two provinces to learn first-hand from local farmers the challenges and opportunities in harnessing passionfruit as a high-value, climate-resilient crop. Plant and Food Research senior scientists and plant virologist Karmun Chooi in Vietnam. Photo: SUPPLIED/P&FR Agriculture made up about 11 percent of Vietnam's GDP and employed millions of farmers, growers and fishers throughout the S-shaped country of 100 million people with a coastline along the South China Sea. Aotearoa contributed to various international development programmes in the Vietnam in recent years, including scientific projects in agriculture, which played a vital role in the Vietnamese economy following manufacturing. Passionfruit, known locally as chanh dây, was already a significant horticultural crop for Vietnam, with around 12,000 hectares cultivated last year - most of which was exported, earning around $371 million. The volume of these exports was expected to soar in the coming years , as Vietnam secured market access for passionfruit into Australia last year, was in negotiations for entry into the United States, and it gained access most recently to China, known for its strict biosecurity and pest control protocols. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade allocated $6.2m to the VietFruit project in March last year, aiming to increase Vietnam's exports of passionfruit - and in turn, support its agriculture sector to build climate and disaster resilience and develop a more skilled workforce. The VietFruit project was a partnership between Plant and Food Research and Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, plant nurseries and research institutions, the Southern Horticultural Research Institute of Vietnam (SOFRI) and the Northern Mountainous Agriculture and Forestry Science Institute (NOMAFSI). Senior scientist and project co-lead Dr Karmun Chooi said the team had spent more than two years working to understand cultivation and production of passionfruit, its threats, and the value chain. "We're looking at how once we've harvested the fruit, how to transport that fruit and store that fruit so it's the best quality fruit for consumption in-country, but also exported," Chooi said. "We're just about to start the extension part of the project, so the biggest opportunity now is really delivering our best insights so far in the project to the industry." Plant and Food Research senior scientist Karmun Chooi studying passionfruit in Vietnam. Photo: SUPPLIED/P&FR She said they will work with seven groups of 10 Vietnamese farmers across the two provinces, with a focus on ethnic minority farmers and female-led farmer collectives, to carry out farm trials of various management techniques. Some trials will include ensuring high hygiene standards along the supply chain, enforcing strategic pruning similar to kiwifruit in New Zealand, appropriate agrichemical application and honing timing for planting and harvesting. "We're able to provide them hopefully practical solutions that they can slightly change maybe the way they cultivate, just to improve - particularly for the ethnic minority - simple ways where they can improve the production to get higher yields and better quality fruit, so they're able to sell that or continue that on into the value chain, while increasing incomes back to their families and to the village," Chooi said. "We're also working with nurseries that supply the plant material to ensure that the highest health plants are actually provided to farmers, so they produce the the best crops." VietFruit objectives for passionfruit: Next was the development of a low-cost plant disease diagnostic tool to detect viral plant diseases, she said. "So this is where we are hoping to be able to provide the nurseries but also other laboratories the ability to do these diagnostics." Passionfruit struck by disease during farmer discussion groups in Vietnam. Photo: SUPPLIED/P&FR Chooi said the goal was not to just give farmers protocols, but to improve their own knowledge bases so they could become "their own scientists" and improve growing passionfruit and other crops. She hoped the insights would be useful to the wider horticultural industry. "First, we'll work with innovation groups, then we'll also invite the wider extension, so some of the commercial companies, and nurseries that sell seedlings," she said. "The best way for people to learn is through talking to farmer to farmer, so we'll invite everyone and we'll have a big, open discussion and forum hopefully within the next year." Climate change adaptation was a new pillar in the new comprehensive strategic partnership signed between New Zealand and Vietnam in February, in celebration of 50 years of diplomatic ties . Project co-lead and Plant and Food Research's international development programme manager Stephanie Montgomery, based in Cambodia, said farmers in Southeast Asia were dealing with more unpredictable weather patterns due to climate change. She said the team explored ways to help "buffer" farmers against changes to the typical wet and dry periods to ensure they maintained good volume and quality yields - like increasing cover cropping to protect against erosion or increasing water storage options. "There are a lot of climate impacts and generally we're seeing extended periods of either drought or flooding," Montgomery said. "We really look at the problem and see how pragmatically we could implement something that will benefit the farmers that they are able to adopt themselves." Montgomery said they were trying to address climate impacts on passionfruit production in Vietnam's Sơn La and Gia Lai provinces, and seeking to improve climate resilience. "In Sơn La, it's a very steep terrain and the passionfruit is grown on the side of these very steep hills. "There are a lot of issues around erosion in the wet season and lack of water in the dry season, access to market and trying to get the passionfruit down the mountain, especially in the wet season. So there are quite a few challenges. "And then you go down to Gia Lai and they are still small holder farmers, but slightly larger farms, more undulating, easier access, deeper and more fertile soils with high yield opportunities - but also constraints as well." Montgomery said agriculture could have negative environmental impacts at times, but it was about striking a balance of protecting the natural resource while optimising food production and food security. "There's a balance there and it does change from system to system. In some of these areas, we do have large erosion issues which result from cropping the land and having soil exposed, so that is a negative impact of agriculture. But we do try to minimise and mitigate against that by having cover cropping, so the ground cover is really important." She said there were knowledge gaps around nutrient and water use for some farmers in the two provinces. "They either haven't learned about them or haven't had as much access to the knowledge about them as say we have in New Zealand and other areas. So it is a good knowledge base to start from and have a discussion about." Montgomery said there was willingness among Vietnamese farmers to be involved with their innovation groups and the wider project, many of whom were struggling with plant disease. "[Passionfruit] is an important fit in the farming system [in Vietnam] and there's definite interest in helping to optimise the production that comes from it," she said. "It of course has competition in the farming system from other high-value products, such as durian which is the king fruit, coffee and other things, but it's often intercropped. "I think the farmers are looking for answers as well because the virus is quite crippling in these vines." The Plant and Food Research team assesses fruit quality in Vietnam. Photo: SUPPLIED/P&FR She said the plant science team will regularly report back to the project's partners and check in with farmers on any progress once they adopted new practices. "You get that local lens that gives you the real practicality and truth of the matter, and then you work together from there to see what solutions we can devise together. "So it's going well, but we've got a lot of work still to do." Montgomery said the next milestone will be trialling new passionfruit washer prototypes currently being engineered. She will return to Vietnam in the coming months to progress work on the ASEAN climate smart working group. Plant and Food Research worked with SOFRI from 2013 on a similar project, supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (between 2013-2021), to develop and breed new cultivars to increase the value of dragonfruit, its largest horticultural export . Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
