Serendib Capital Limited has emerged as a White Knight for Sarawak Cable Berhad after having submitted its interest in performing a resuscitation exercise at the PN17 mainboard listed manufacturing company on 5 December 2023.
The firm is said to be an experienced UK based investor with over two decades of experience in advisory and financial asset restructuring in South Asia. Their track record encompasses several high-profile regional deals, the most notable of which was the restructuring and rescue of Lanka Bangla Finance, netting investors over 50 times invested capital.
This will be the firm’s first significant Malaysian deal and according to SCB have prepared an RM250 million war chest to be used to restructure and pay down outstanding creditors, as well as for an injection of capital into the company to cater to the growing customer demand for infrastructure grid development and high voltage cables.
According to SCB’s press statement, Serendib Capital sees the growing emphasis on national development of Malaysia’s electrical infrastructure as an attractive proposition. Increased electrification of transport, ASEAN grid connectivity and the mushrooming of power hungry datacentres and the demand for electric vehicles are all key drivers for growth in the near future.
“We see this partnership as an extremely positive development in the path to restructuring our financial commitments at SCB and we look forwards to leveraging the financial firepower and turnaround expertise of Serendib Capital so that we can focus on aggressively delivering on our MYR 900m orderbook” Russell Boyd, Group CEO of SCB.
While Takeo Hirata, Advisor to Serendib Capital and Non-Independent Non-Executive Director at SCB said “We are delighted to commit to partnering and investing with SCB, the largest power cable manufacturer in Malaysia, and leading manufacturer regionally. The quality of SCB’s customer base and manufacturing capabilities are second to none. We eagerly anticipate cleaning up whatever lingering legacy issues still remain and to restoring and surpass SCB as compared to its former glories, as we build this business into a regional powerhouse”
