KUALA LUMPUR: YB Ventures Bhd, a tiles manufacturer and information technology (IT) company, has completed its 18 per cent investment into Prolexus Bhd.

YB Venture said it had become the second-largest shareholder of Prolexus with an indirect interest of 48.90 million shares in Bursa Malaysia main market-listed apparel company.

Executive director Datuk Au Yee Boon said the company was confident that the investment into Prolexus will derive synergies and create values for both companies in the financial years 2022 (FY22) and FY23. 

"Both YB Ventures and Prolexus have strong capabilities in their manufacturing arms.

"We believe that the asset rationalisation and sharing of expertise and experience will push forward our ambition to embrace smart manufacturing," he said in a statement. 

While some of the initiatives to improve research and development (R&D) capabilities, cost savings, an improvement in procurement processes and even a shift towards solar energy for manufacturing plants would be shared across, Au said both companies would operate independently, in terms of operations and financials.

"As an example, the solar initiatives for YB Ventures' plant in Kulai, Johor, can save at least 20 per cent of electricity per month and could also help to escalate the shift towards renewable energy sources for Prolexus. 

"These initiatives align with both companies' environmental, social and governance (ESG) agenda," he said.

Meanwhile, Au said the completion of the investment was timely as Prolexus' apparel business was expected to see a recovery in tandem with the global economic recovery as international borders reopened.

The recovery of demand for apparel and foreign workers' return would accelerate YB Ventures' initiatives to realise synergies from its investment, he added. 

On top of that, Prolexus has a strong economic moat to withstand the global economic uncertainty with its large pile of cash. 

As of January 31, 2022, Prolexus had RM104.6  million of cash and cash equivalents.

YB Venture registered a net profit of RM16.7 million, on the back of RM227.5 million revenue for its financial year ended July 31, 2021.