Rhone Ma Holdings Berhad

$RHONEMA / 5278 (RHONE MA HOLDINGS BERHAD) declares a surprise 0.5sen dividend. A pleasant surprise indeed.

$RHONEMA / 5278 (RHONE MA HOLDINGS BERHAD) Secures FAMI-QS certifications as well as their NPRA-GMP Cert for their Nilai Plant

For those following the stock, this is something to be happy about.

https://cutt.ly/qemiYMxk

After some delays, Rhone Ma's Nilai plant has finally gotten their NPRA-GMP certification. This now allows them to ramp up the plant to produce pharmaceutical products including their own brand products. Previously, the plant in PJ had been running at max production capacity and this new plant has been in the works since 2019. It was actually completed around early 2023, but because the NPRA-GMP certifications are so stringent, the plant was only running at about 30-40% capacity producing feed additives all the while. It's only now that they finally managed to secure the certification and thus can produce pharmaceutical products in both their Nilai and PJ plants.

Together with their NPRA-GMP certification, Rhone Ma has also secured the FAMI-QS certification for both their plants, for Feed Additives and Pre-Mixtures Quality System to ensure proper feed quality is produced, including proper risk management and hygiene measures to ensure feed safety.

FAMI-QS is an international certification recognized around the world, and its member companies include big names like BASF, Adisseo, Evonik Industries, Archer Daniels Midlands and more. In Malaysia, there are only 5 companies that have the FAMI-QS certs; of which Rhone Ma owns 2 of them.

I am personally a big stickler for certifications and standards, especially when dealing with pharmaceutical and industrial agriculture matters. For those with some experience dealing in this industry, you might be aware of a lot of malpractice going on by unscrupulous companies, especially in the developing part of the world. Certifications are there to prevent such frauds, and to ensure proper good quality products go into the farm animals and ultimately ourselves.

What tangible benefits can these certifications get? Well, I'm not able to quantify them, but qualitatively, I would expect it to make it easier to export their products. Also, their products would likely be able to justify some premiums as opposed to products without the same kind of certifications.

At the same time, they would more easily be able to service the international organizations or find a foot into tenders and projects.

Nevertheless, we shall see how Rhone Ma will perform after this, after rather slow growth results for the past few years. At the very least, I would be watching out for them to ramp up the production at their new Nilai plant and how much they can increase exports.

I have been covering Rhone Ma for a long time, and you may scroll back on the $RHONEMA / 5278 (RHONE MA HOLDINGS BERHAD) page here on Stockbit for the other posts and discussions.

DEALINGS IN LISTED SECURITIES (CHAPTER 14 OF LISTING REQUIREMENTS) : Dealings During Closed Period

Changes in Sub. S-hldr's Int (Section 138 of CA 2016) - MR FOONG KAM WENG

Changes in Director's Interest (Section 219 of CA 2016) - MR FOONG KAM WENG

Changes in Sub. S-hldr's Int (Section 138 of CA 2016) - TEO KWEE HOCK

DEALINGS IN LISTED SECURITIES (CHAPTER 14 OF LISTING REQUIREMENTS) : Dealings During Closed Period

Changes in Sub. S-hldr's Int (Section 138 of CA 2016) - MR FOONG KAM WENG

Changes in Director's Interest (Section 219 of CA 2016) - MR FOONG KAM WENG

Changes in Sub. S-hldr's Int (Section 138 of CA 2016) - TEO KWEE HOCK

Changes in Sub. S-hldr's Int (Section 138 of CA 2016) - TEO KWEE HOCK

Changes in Sub. S-hldr's Int (Section 138 of CA 2016) - TEO KWEE HOCK

Changes in Director's Interest (Section 219 of CA 2016) - DR LIM BAN KEONG

Changes in Sub. S-hldr's Int (Section 138 of CA 2016) - DR LIM BAN KEONG

DEALINGS IN LISTED SECURITIES (CHAPTER 14 OF LISTING REQUIREMENTS) : Dealings Outside Closed Period

$RHONEMA / 5278 (RHONE MA HOLDINGS BERHAD) AGM 2024

1. Food ingredients segment focuses on food commodities for confectionery, bakeries, manufacturers and so on, for human consumption. More towards trading of food commodities.

2. Animal health segment -0.8% growth due to drop in ruminant business, there were absence of some larger Build-Train-Handover dairy projects in the year prior.

3. Looking to explore more potential in human healthcare after getting their ISO 15189 certification for their lab, to offer services to hospitals. So far, even excluding covid-related push (from sale of test kits and etc), core business (for this segment) has been growing steadily over the years. Segment is still small for now.

4. Breaking down contribution of animal health segments: pets business (36% of revenue) is growing steadily and should continue to perform well. Feed additives 29%, Poultry 17%, ruminant 15%, swine 3%.

5. Export business to Philippines dropped, overall from RM 5.1m to 3.4m but managed to penetrate into some new markets. It’s worth noting, that all their exported products are of own brand and not 3rd party brands.

6. JDV about 75% completed as end April 2024. Revenue contribution to start coming in around 4Q 2025? Another ~RM 12mil investment expected in the JV company from Rhone Ma until completion, which is more than supported by own cash flow. Interestingly, the JDV bought the IP for Rhone Ma’s cattle feed formulation. In this JV, Rhone Ma (via Subsidiary A2 Fresh) will focus more on the technical know-how while Kulim will handle administrative matters.

7. Principal products are all imported (mainly from EU and US), and there are no plans for now to bring in production of these products into Malaysia. Most pet owners are not very price sensitive, and they are willing to pay premiums for top quality products instead of finding the “cheapest” options. NexGard products are still top selling in pet healthcare, with proven efficacy and ingredients and being recommended by many vets compared to cheaper alternatives.

8. The new Nilai GMP plant is currently running at around 40% utilisation, making non-pharmaceutical and vaccine products. They are currently running the stabilization tests for NPRA certification for products in the other half of the plant. If I understood correctly, Dr Lim mentioned that the NPRA certification requires proof that the products can be manufactured stably without defects for 18 months before commercialization, and they are almost done with the NPRA certification. That being said, it’s not like they can ramp up immediately. What kind of incremental earnings can they get? I’m not too clear on this, but it should nevertheless be a positive one. Near term focus is to gradually improve utilization of this new plant in stages.

9. Pig farm repopulation efforts are underway, with 2 shipments of live Danish pigs already made and a third one in progress. Only can import live pigs for now, as there are a lot of regulations for live animal specimens cross border. They are the exclusive distributor for DanBred in Malaysia. How much profit from the importation of pigs? Not much directly, but indirectly they also benefit from the repopulation in general (higher livestock population = bigger pie for everyone), as well as being able to offer veterinary and biosecurity services to the farms as add on services. Currently, swine makes up only a small portion of their business. They see that the swine population has stabilized after the major decline from the ASF outbreak and should recover slowly in time.

10. Batang Kali dairy farm still yet to expand to 500 heads, finding for more land to expand the barns (?), also refocusing resources to JDV since they got it

Changes in Sub. S-hldr's Int (Section 138 of CA 2016) - TEO KWEE HOCK

Changes in Sub. S-hldr's Int (Section 138 of CA 2016) - TEO KWEE HOCK

Notice of Interest Sub. S-hldr (Section 137 of CA 2016) - TEO KWEE HOCK

General Meetings: Outcome of Meeting

Changes in Director's Interest (Section 219 of CA 2016) - DR LIM BAN KEONG

Changes in Sub. S-hldr's Int (Section 138 of CA 2016) - DR LIM BAN KEONG

DEALINGS IN LISTED SECURITIES (CHAPTER 14 OF LISTING REQUIREMENTS) : Dealings Outside Closed Period

KUALA LUMPUR: Affin Hwang Investment Bank has maintained its earnings forecast for Rhone Ma Holdings Bhd due to its solid performance and alignment with expectations. 

© New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd

Quarterly rpt on consolidated results for the financial period ended 31/03/2024

Annual Report & CG Report - 2023

General Meetings: Notice of Meeting

RHONEMA - Notice of Book Closure

Final Dividend

DEALINGS IN LISTED SECURITIES (CHAPTER 14 OF LISTING REQUIREMENTS) : Dealings Outside Closed Period