History
Our Company was incorporated in the Republic of Singapore on 3 August 2005 under the Act as a private company limited by shares, under the name "Riverstone Holdings Private Limited". Our Company was converted into a public company and the name of our Company changed to "Riverstone Holdings Limited" in connection there with on 27 October 2006.
In preparation for a listing on the SGX-ST, we undertook the Restructuring Exercise as outlined on pages 77 to 79 of the Prospectus to streamline our corporate structure and business activities and to consolidate the principal entities of our Group as subsidiaries under our Company.
Phase 1: From service providers to manufacturers of cleanroom gloves
The Riverstone Group has its origins when Mr Wong Teek Son set up a sole proprietorship known as T S Enterprise in the late 1980s in Selayang, Selangor, Malaysia to provide glove chlorination, laundry and packaging services to glove manufacturers in Malaysia. Identifying the large potential for growth in the glove manufacturing industry, Mr Wong Teek Son and Mr Lee Wai Keong established Riverstone Resources Sdn Bhd ("Riverstone Resources Malaysia") on 27 November 1991 to take over the business of TS Enterprise and to focus on the manufacture of cleanroom natural rubber and cleanroom nitrile gloves, which requires the use of more advanced production technology.
To meet the increasing demand for cleanroom gloves, Riverstone Resources Malaysia leased a factory at Kepong, Malaysia (the "Kepong Factory") in end 1994 to undertake glove production. The Kepong Factory was equipped with a Class 1000 cleanroom facility and four dipping lines with an annual production capacity of 120 million pieces of gloves. With the establishment of the Kepong Factory, we believe that we became the first manufacturer of cleanroom gloves in the Asian region with a fully integrated production process. In 1994, Riverstone Resources Malaysia also successfully developed and became the pioneer in the manufacture of nitrile gloves in Malaysia. To broaden our range of products to meet unique requirements of our customers, Ringletex Dipped Products Sdn Bhd ("Ringletex"), was incorporated on 8 May 1995 to manufacture cleanroom packaging materials.
In 1996, we developed and produced nitrile finger cots using our own proprietary production technique. The two finger cots production lines at the Kepong Factory enabled us to have an annual capacity of 187 million finger cots. In addition, we were also one of the pioneers of on-line chlorination technology in Malaysia which involves the treatment of newly formed gloves with chlorinated solution whilst the gloves are on the production line.
Phase 2: Increase in demand and growth in worldwide sales
In December 1997, we constructed a factory (the "Lot 56 Factory") on a two-acre plot of industrial land located at Lot 56, Jalan Jasmin 2, Kawasan Perindustrian Bukit Beruntung, 48300 Bukit Beruntung, Selangor, Malaysia purchased by us in 1993 to expand our operations and to undertake research and development activities for the manufacture of cleanroom gloves.
In 1998, we constructed a factory (the "Lot 47 Factory") on a two-acre plot of industrial land located at Lot 47, Jalan Jasmin 2, Kawasan Perindustrian Bukit Beruntung, 48300 Bukit Beruntung, Selangor, Malaysia purchased by us in 1997 to expand our production capacity. We set up another two finger cots production lines at this factory with a combined annual capacity of 187 million finger cots. We commenced the production of cleanroom packaging materials through Ringletex. On 4 May 1998, Ringletex changed its name to Riverstone Industrial Products Sdn Bhd ("Riverstone Industrial Malaysia").
Riverstone Resources Malaysia set up an additional dipping line for cleanroom gloves at our Lot 47 Factory in 1998 with an annual capacity of 48 million pieces. Together with our Kepong Factory, we had an annual production capacity of 168 million pieces of gloves. We also set up a sales office in Penang, Malaysia and incorporated Riverstone Resources (S) Pte Ltd ("Riverstone Singapore") on 19 September 1998 to better support our customers.
In 1998, Riverstone Resources Malaysia was awarded ISO 9001:2000 certification by the SIRIM QAS International Sdn Bhd in relation to its quality management systems for the manufacture of cleanroom nitrile and natural rubber gloves, and nitrile and natural rubber powder-free gloves.
The growth in the technology sector resulted in a corresponding increase in demand for our cleanroom gloves by manufacturers in the HDD and semiconductor sectors within the electronics industry. In early 1999, Riverstone Resources Malaysia set up another dipping line. Our annual production capacity for cleanroom gloves increased to 216 million pieces.
Phase 3: Leading international brand in cleanroom gloves
In 2000, Riverstone Resources Malaysia installed another dipping line at the Lot 47 Factory that increased total annual production of cleanroom gloves to 271 million pieces. To meet the increasingly sophisticated requirements of our customers, we developed our capability to produce high quality nitrile gloves for use in Class 10 cleanroom environments in the same year. We also installed a special dipping line dedicated solely for research and development purposes at our Lot 47 Factory.
We set up a representative office in the Philippines on 4 September 2000 to undertake sales and marketing activities and to increase our presence in the Asia-Pacific region.
On 17 January 2001, we set up Riverstone Resources (Thailand) Co. Ltd to capitalise on the growing business opportunities in Thailand. Our facility in Thailand has two dipping lines with a combined annual production capacity of approximately 120 million pieces of gloves. This resulted in an increase in our total annual production capacity for gloves to 391 million pieces of gloves. In the same year, we set up a sales office in the US in March 2001 to penetrate the North-American market.
At the end of 2002 and in early 2003, we set up two additional dipping lines, with annual production capacity totalling 140 million pieces of gloves, at our Lot 47 Factory to replace our older dipping lines at the Kepong Factory. This replacement brought our total annual production capacity of our Group to 411 million pieces of gloves. Following the dismantling of the dipping lines at the Kepong Factory in 2003, the Kepong Factory was focused on carrying out chlorination, laundry and packaging services for finger cots produced by our Group.
We completed the construction of a factory at our Lot 55 premise (the "Lot 55 Factory") in 2003 on a two-acre plot of industrial land located at Lot 55, Jalan Jasmin 2, Kawasan Perindustrian Bukit Beruntung, 48300 Bukit Beruntung, Selangor, Malaysia which we purchased in 1999. We installed our fifth finger cot production line at our Lot 47 Factory and this increased the total annual production of finger cots to 475 million pieces. Riverstone Thailand was awarded ISO9001:2000 certification by BVQI (Thailand) Ltd. in relation to our management system for the manufacturing and development of cleanroom nitrile and natural rubber gloves, and nitrile and natural rubber powder-free gloves in 2003.
In 2004, we installed another dipping line at our Lot 47 Factory which increased our annual production capacity to approximately 481 million pieces of gloves. We also established Riverstone Resources (Wuxi) Co. Ltd on 19 April 2004 to provide chlorination and packaging services for gloves produced in our Malaysian and Thai facilities before delivering them to our customers in the PRC. In the same year, we acquired additional equipment which enabled Riverstone Industrial Malaysia to increase its total annual production capacity for cleanroom packaging materials to 660 tonnes. Riverstone Resources (Thailand) Co. Ltd changed its name to "Protective Technology Company Limited" on 30 December 2004.
In 2005, our total annual cleanroom glove production capacity increased to 601 million pieces with the addition of another dipping line at our factory at our Lot 54 premise (the "Lot 54 Factory") on another two-acre plot of industrial land located at Lot 54, Jalan Jasmin 2, Kawasan Perindustrian Bukit Beruntung, 48300 Bukit Beruntung, Selangor, Malaysia which we purchased in 2003. The construction of the Lot 54 Factory commenced and was completed in 2005. This seventh dipping line has a larger production capacity than our existing dipping lines as it has two rows of formers. In the same year, we also acquired additional equipment which enabled Riverstone Industrial Malaysia to increase its total annual production capacity for cleanroom packaging materials to 876 tonnes.
Between 2003 and 2005, we won various awards in Malaysia in recognition for our high quality products, including the 2003, 2004 and 2005 run of the Enterprise 50 Award Programme and the 2003 Selangor Product Excellence Award. In 2005, we also received the Best Overall Award from the Small and Medium Industries Association of Malaysia. For more details, please refer to the section "Awards" in this Prospectus.
We have over the years, developed our in-house technical capability in the manufacture of cleanroom gloves. This has enabled us to transform ourselves from a provider of glove chlorination, laundry and packaging services into an integrated manufacturer of cleanroom gloves and other cleanroom consumable products under our "RS Riverstone Resources" brand for use in Class 100 and the higher specification of Class 10 cleanroom environments.
As at the date of this Prospectus, our Group has manufacturing facilities in Malaysia, Thailand and the PRC, as well as a network of sales offices in six countries.
