MULPHA Capital Group, the financial adviser in the Mulpha International Bhd stable, aims to carve its own niche by offering more creative services. "We want to become, if you like, a corporate buyout specialist," said Mulpha Capital Holdings Sdn Bhd executive director Derrick Tan Peng Koon.

Tan cited the RM365 million Unza Holdings Bhd management buyout from Cosway Bhd by Unza Nusantara Sdn Bhd (formerly known as Annexe Profile Sdn Bhd). Mulpha Capital helped raise RM230 million from the fixed income market using serial bonds and subordinated commercial papers for Annexe Profile, which made a voluntary general offer for the main board-listed company.

"We are applying the same formula to fund the buyout of Vickers Hoskin Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of Nam Fatt group," he added. The three-man team at Mulpha Capital has built a relatively strong base in the fixed-income market, over the span of two years. It has helped raise over RM750 million using debt papers and is in the process of raising at least RM350 million more in the near term.

Aside from fund raising, the group has structured over a dozen corporate deals, which include listing, takeovers and management buyouts, and acted as a financial adviser to companies like Sunrise Bhd, Glomac Bhd and Premium Nutrients Bhd (which assumed the listing status of Bridgecon Bhd), alongside several smaller, closely-held companies with strong cash flows.

"It's essentially a people's business, it's all about getting the right talents. We have a very lean but strong corporate advisory team," Tan said. Mulpha Capital has helped raise funds for Sabah-based timber companies like the main-board listed Evermaster Group Bhd and second board-listed Priceworth Wood Products Bhd. It has also acted as adviser to a unit of Sabah Development Corp Bhd's Cement Industries (Sabah) Sdn Bhd.

Very few people in Malaysia have done what Mulpha Capital is trying to do with fixed income instruments or, essentially, debt papers, partly because of legal obstacles like what can be used as collateral in a corporate exercise, he said, but added that the group has been able to help companies overcome obstacles by thinking out of the box.

"Many companies constantly face various obstacles in their quest to improve and grow businesses, (and) many solutions to these businesses and financial obstacles can be surprisingly simple. We at Mulpha blend creativity and practicality in deriving flexible yet effective business solutions that connect he unconnected link of the business jigsaw," reads the introduction to Mulpha Capital's profile book.

While the focus now is to build credibility and reputation in the market, Tan said, the group has plans to enter complimentary areas in financial services such as asset management. "Of course if an opportunity for a Universal Broker (status) comes along ... everything goes back to pricing," Tan said. On competition, Tan said, there are "a lot of parties" in the market, but Mulpha Capital is "one of the active ones" in the market in terms of the number of deals done.