Econ Healthcare smashes SGX debut with over 16.6m shares traded

Shares of the Catalist-listed private nursing operator had an intra-day high of $0.30 per unit, 7.1% higher than the IPO price.

Econ Healthcare (Asia) Limited's debut on the Singapore Exchange has exceeded its initial public offering (IPO) prices.

In a statement, the Catalist-listed private nursing home operator said thaharest s had an opening price of $0.285 and an intra-day high of $0.30, 1.8% and 7.1% higher respectively to the IPO of $0.28.

It had a closing price of $0.29 per unit, with close to 16.6m shares traded over the course of the day.

"To those who continue to place their trust and faith in Econ Healthcare, this is an encouraging and exciting start to our next chapter of growth. We strive to deliver on our promises and steer the Group towards sustainable, long-term growth for all our shareholders," said Econ Healthcare CEO and executive chairman Ong Chu Poh.

Approximately $7.5m of the proceeds from the IPO will go to expansion plans in Singapore and overseas, $2m will go to upgrading existing medicare centres and nursing homes, $2m to general corporate and working capital purposes, and $2.5m as payment of underwriting and placement commissions and offering expenses.

Econ Healthcare has been in operation for three decades.

It operates 10 medicare centres and nursing homes in Singapore, Malaysia and China, with 1,094 residents, and a bed capacity of 1,376.