MULTIMEDIA and technology firm, V2 Multimedia Bhd, will be the first China-based company to list on Malaysian Exchange of Securities Dealing & Automated Quotation Bhd (Mesdaq) Market when its initial public offering (IPO) is launched next year.
V2 Multimedia chief executive officer Ben Ye said the company has submitted the listing proposals to the authorities.
We are aiming for an IPO within the first quarter of next year, he told a news conference after the signing of master distributor partnership agreement between V2 and Penril Datability (SEA) Sdn Bhd in Petaling Jaya yesterday.
V2 Multimedia is the parent firm of China pioneer in software- based video conferencing tech- nology, V2 Technology Inc.
The firm, together with its associated companies in China, is engaged in multimedia product and technology research and development (R&D) and design.
The Multimedia Super Corridor-status company has made Malay- sia its regional headquarters, as a launching pad to the South-East Asian market.
The video conferencing market in Association of South-East Asia Nations is estimated to be worth more than US$100 million (US$1 = RM3.80) a year.
He said V2 Multimedia expects to achieve RM1 million sales from its web-based video conferencing system for enterprises by the end of next year.
Estimated sales for the Asian region, excluding China, will be between RM3 million and RM5 million (end of 2005), he said.
Penril, through its strong regional network will market the affordable video-conferencing so- lution to businesses in Malaysia and abroad.
He said V2 five-user video conferencing system costs RM36,800 with minimal hardware costs, as opposed to RM500,000 investment needed to set up a traditional hardware-based video conferencing facility.
He said another advantage of V2 system is that users need not go to a specific video conferencing room for virtual face-to-face interaction.
What they need is a notebook computer or a personal computer, a normal web camera and linkage to the Internet, he said.
He said the company is coming out with different language versions of the system. Currently, the video conferencing system comes in Chinese, English and Japanese languages.
We are in the process of coming out with the Bahasa Malaysia version, he added.
V2 Multimedia next plan is to develop an R&D facility in the country by capitalising on Malaysia expertise such as software designers and program- mers.
V2 was founded in 1999 by a group of Chinese university graduates with the help of several venture capitalists, including Subang Jaya-based Netrove Partners Sdn Bhd.
Penril, meanwhile, is a solutions and services information technology firm, offering a full range of software solutions to both local and multinational banks, insurance, unit trust, securities, telecommunications and small and medium enterprises.
(Source: Business Times, 29th October 2004)