Scientex Berhad is a Bursa Malaysia-listed manufacturer-and-property conglomerate that has spent nearly six decades transforming from a Johor Bahru textile mill into one of Malaysia’s largest flexible and industrial packaging producers, while running a substantial residential property development arm alongside it. Now led by second-generation brothers Lim Peng Cheong and Lim Peng Jin, the group posted record revenue of RM4.52 billion in FY2025 and has built one of Malaysia’s most active packaging M&A track records, most recently completing full ownership of subsidiary Scientex Packaging (Ayer Keroh) Bhd — formerly Daibochi Bhd — via a selective capital reduction that delisted the unit on 25 March 2026.
Key Takeaways
- Scientex Berhad (Bursa Malaysia: SCIENTX, stock code 4731) is a Malaysian dual-segment conglomerate combining flexible and industrial plastic packaging manufacturing with residential property development, founded on 25 June 1968 in Johor Bahru as Scientific Textile Industries Sdn Bhd.
- The company is controlled by brothers Lim Peng Cheong (Managing Director) and Lim Peng Jin (Group CEO), sons of founder Lim Teck Meng, who jointly hold a combined interest of more than 55% via holding vehicle Scientex Infinity Sdn Bhd.
- Group revenue reached a record RM4.52 billion in FY2025 (year ended 31 July 2025), with net profit of RM530.8 million; the packaging division contributed RM2.48 billion of that revenue and the property division RM2.03 billion.
- Scientex has grown its packaging division partly through M&A: it took Daibochi Bhd private via a RM345.3 million voluntary offer in 2021, then completed a follow-on RM147.82 million selective capital reduction that gave it 100% ownership of the renamed Scientex Packaging (Ayer Keroh) Bhd and delisted the unit on 25 March 2026.
- With domestic packaging M&A opportunities increasingly limited, media reporting in late 2025 indicates Scientex is actively scouting acquisition targets outside Malaysia.
Company Snapshot
| Company | Scientex Berhad, Malaysia |
| Country | Malaysia |
| Industry | Packaging (plastics/flexible & industrial) plus residential property development |
| Business Type | Manufacturer / Property Developer |
| Founded | 25 June 1968, Johor Bahru (as Scientific Textile Industries Sdn Bhd) |
| Stock Listing | Bursa Malaysia Main Board, ticker SCIENTX (stock code 4731); listed since 1990 |
| Ownership | Lim family — Lim Peng Cheong and Lim Peng Jin jointly hold >55% via Scientex Infinity Sdn Bhd |
| Leadership | Lim Peng Cheong (Managing Director), Lim Peng Jin (Group CEO) |
| FY2025 Revenue | RM4.52 billion (record, year ended 31 July 2025) |
| FY2025 Net Profit | RM530.8 million |
| Market Capitalisation | Approximately RM6.15 billion (early 2026) |
| Manufacturing Footprint | Malaysia, Vietnam, United States (Scientex Phoenix, LLC); formerly Myanmar (ceased June 2025) |
Company History & Background
Scientex Berhad traces its roots to 25 June 1968, when founder Lim Teck Meng established Scientific Textile Industries Sdn Bhd in Johor Bahru to manufacture PVC leather cloth and sheeting. The company went public in 1970 and secured a listing on the Main Board of the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange — now Bursa Malaysia — in 1990, a step that gave it the public-markets capital access to diversify beyond its original textile-adjacent business. As operations expanded through the 1990s, the company was renamed Scientex Incorporated Berhad in 1995, before adopting its current name, Scientex Berhad, in 2008. Over that period Scientex evolved from a PVC and textile producer into one of Malaysia’s largest industrial packaging manufacturers, while simultaneously building a residential property development arm from the 1990s onward — a dual manufacturing-plus-property structure that remains unusual among Bursa-listed packaging companies and persists to this day. Leadership has since passed to the second generation: brothers Lim Peng Cheong (Managing Director) and Lim Peng Jin (Group CEO), sons of the founder, now run the group day to day.
Business Model: Two Segments Under One Roof
Scientex operates through two distinct segments that rarely sit inside the same listed company. The packaging segment manufactures flexible plastic packaging — stretch film, BOPP (biaxially oriented polypropylene) film, and laminated and printed packaging film for food, beverage and FMCG customers — alongside industrial packaging products including woven bags, FIBC (flexible intermediate bulk container) bulk bags, and PP strapping. The group also produces automotive interior components through joint ventures. This manufacturing footprint spans plants in Malaysia, Vietnam and the United States (through Scientex Phoenix, LLC), in addition to historic operations in Myanmar that ceased in June 2025. Key packaging brands include Scientex, Scientex Great Wall, and Scientex Packaging (Ayer Keroh) — the entity formerly known as Daibochi. Running in parallel, the property division develops residential projects across Johor, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Selangor, Perak, Penang and Kedah, giving Scientex a second, largely uncorrelated revenue engine that helped the group post FY2025 segment revenue of RM2.48 billion from packaging and RM2.03 billion from property.
M&A & Investment Track Record
Scientex’s packaging division has grown through a combination of organic expansion and a sustained, multi-decade M&A programme — making the group one of the more acquisitive packaging manufacturers on Bursa Malaysia. In 2013, Scientex acquired Great Wall Plastic Industries Bhd and GW Packaging Sdn Bhd to enter the food packaging segment, a move later expanded under the Scientex Great Wall brand. It followed up in February 2014 with the acquisition of Seacera Polyfilms Sdn Bhd, a BOPP film producer, and in 2015 acquired 100% of Mondi Ipoh Sdn Bhd, subsequently renamed Scientex Great Wall (Ipoh) Sdn Bhd. Scientex has also used joint ventures to expand its regional manufacturing base over the decades, partnering with Mitsui & Co. and Yamato Chemical (the Yamatex venture in 1990, followed by a Vietnam joint venture in 1996), Tsukasa Chemical Industry (PP strapping and HDPE raffia tape production in 1997 and again in 2008), and Mitsui Takeda Chemicals (an ASEAN adhesive plant for flexible food packaging in 2002).
The group’s most significant recent deal was its pursuit of full ownership of Daibochi Bhd, a Bursa-listed flexible packaging manufacturer. Scientex began building a stake in Daibochi in 2019 and by 2021 had reached 61.88% before launching a RM345.3 million unconditional voluntary offer to take the company fully private; Daibochi was subsequently renamed Scientex Packaging (Ayer Keroh) Bhd. That 2021 offer, however, fell short of the 90% acceptance threshold needed to delist the company outright, after minority holders Apollo Asia Fund and Samarang Ucits-Samarang Asian Prosperity held out for a higher price. Scientex resolved that impasse years later through a different mechanism: a selective capital reduction and repayment exercise, requiring only shareholder and High Court approval rather than a voluntary take-over acceptance threshold, at RM1.50 cash per share for a total payout of roughly RM147.8 million to the remaining minority shareholders. Shareholders approved the plan in November 2025, and Scientex Packaging (Ayer Keroh) Bhd delisted from Bursa Malaysia on 25 March 2026, giving Scientex 100% ownership of the business five years after its original offer. Media reporting from late 2025 indicates that, with domestic packaging M&A targets increasingly scarce, Scientex is now actively scouting acquisitions outside Malaysia to sustain its packaging growth.
Financial Snapshot: A Conglomerate Running Two Engines
Scientex closed FY2025 (year ended 31 July 2025) with group revenue of RM4.52 billion, a record for the company, and net profit of RM530.8 million. The split between its two divisions was close to even — RM2.48 billion from packaging and RM2.03 billion from property — underscoring that this is not a packaging company with a small side business in real estate, but a genuine dual-engine conglomerate where property development contributes close to half of group revenue in a given year. Scientex’s market capitalisation stood at roughly RM6.15 billion in early 2026, reflecting a company of meaningful scale within Malaysia’s industrial and consumer-packaging landscape. The structural logic of pairing manufacturing with property is that the two segments respond to different cycles: packaging revenue tracks F&B and FMCG demand and export volumes, while property revenue tracks domestic housing demand, interest rates and land-bank monetisation — giving Scientex a natural hedge against downturns concentrated in either sector alone, though it also means investors must evaluate two very different businesses under a single ticker.
Why Scientex Matters in ASEAN Packaging
Scientex’s relevance extends beyond its own balance sheet. As one of Malaysia’s largest flexible and industrial packaging manufacturers, it supplies the packaging films and bulk-handling products that sit upstream of a large share of the country’s food, beverage and FMCG brand owners — including many of the same private-label and contract-manufactured products covered across OEMReview’s broader coverage of Malaysia’s manufacturing base. Its cross-border manufacturing footprint in Vietnam and the United States also makes it one of the more internationally exposed Malaysian packaging groups, positioning it to serve multinational F&B customers with regional or global supply requirements rather than a purely domestic client base. Perhaps most instructively for other Bursa-listed companies, the mechanics of Scientex’s Daibochi/SciPack privatisation — an initial voluntary offer blocked by minority holdouts, followed years later by a selective capital reduction that achieved full ownership through shareholder and court approval instead — has effectively demonstrated a legal playbook that other Malaysian acquirers facing similar blocking-stake problems can now follow.
My Take
My take on Scientex is that it is one of the more disciplined and patient acquirers in Malaysia’s packaging sector, and the Daibochi/SciPack saga is the clearest evidence of that. Most companies that get blocked by minority holdouts on a voluntary offer either walk away or overpay to clear the 90% threshold. Scientex did neither — it sat at 71.89% for roughly four years, kept operating the business, and then came back with a legally cleaner structure (the selective capital reduction) that only needed shareholder and High Court sign-off rather than the cooperation of the exact minority holders who had blocked it the first time. That is capital discipline and legal creativity working together, and I think it says a lot about how a family-controlled group with a long time horizon can outlast institutional minority investors who are optimising for a near-term exit price.
What I find most interesting looking forward is the dual-engine structure itself. Packaging and residential property are an unusual pairing, and I suspect it exists more for historical reasons — the Lim family diversified into property when it made sense decades ago — than because of any deliberate portfolio-hedging strategy. But with domestic packaging M&A targets thinning out, as the company’s own commentary suggests, I’ll be watching closely for Scientex’s first cross-border packaging acquisition outside Malaysia. A group with Scientex’s balance sheet, its existing Vietnam and US manufacturing footprint, and its now-proven appetite for complex, multi-year M&A structures looks like a natural buyer of mid-sized flexible packaging manufacturers elsewhere in ASEAN or beyond — and if that deal comes, I would not be surprised if it takes just as long and just as much structuring patience as SciPack did.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Scientex Berhad do?
Scientex Berhad is a Bursa Malaysia-listed conglomerate that manufactures flexible and industrial plastic packaging — including stretch film, BOPP film, woven bags and FIBC bulk bags — for food, beverage, FMCG and industrial customers, while also developing residential property projects across Peninsular Malaysia.
Who owns Scientex Berhad?
Scientex Berhad is controlled by brothers Lim Peng Cheong (Managing Director) and Lim Peng Jin (Group CEO), sons of founder Lim Teck Meng, who jointly hold a combined interest of more than 55% through their holding vehicle, Scientex Infinity Sdn Bhd.
How big is Scientex Berhad?
Scientex posted record group revenue of RM4.52 billion and net profit of RM530.8 million in FY2025 (year ended 31 July 2025), with a market capitalisation of approximately RM6.15 billion in early 2026 and manufacturing operations in Malaysia, Vietnam and the United States.
What M&A deals has Scientex Berhad completed?
Scientex’s packaging-sector acquisitions include Great Wall Plastic Industries and GW Packaging (2013), Seacera Polyfilms (2014), Mondi Ipoh (2015), and the full privatisation of Daibochi Bhd — renamed Scientex Packaging (Ayer Keroh) Bhd — completed via a RM147.82 million selective capital reduction that delisted the unit on 25 March 2026.
Is Scientex Berhad planning more acquisitions?
Media reporting from late 2025 indicates Scientex is actively scouting acquisition targets outside Malaysia, as domestic packaging M&A opportunities have become increasingly limited for a group of its scale.
What happened to Daibochi Bhd?
Daibochi Bhd was taken private by Scientex through a RM345.3 million voluntary offer in 2021 and renamed Scientex Packaging (Ayer Keroh) Bhd. A remaining minority stake was bought out via a RM147.82 million selective capital reduction, and the company delisted from Bursa Malaysia on 25 March 2026, becoming a wholly-owned Scientex subsidiary.
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- Indonesia’s Sari Murni Abadi (Momogi) Acquires 99% of Vietnam’s Bibica for $105 Million — another family-controlled manufacturer building scale through M&A
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- Private Label vs National Brands: The Global Shift Retailers Are Driving
Sources
- Wikipedia — Scientex Berhad
- Scientex Berhad — Corporate Milestones
- Scientex Berhad — Who We Are (official website)
- The Edge Malaysia — Scientex takes Daibochi private
- The Star — Scientex Packaging to delist on March 25 under privatisation plan
- The Star — Scientex proposes selective capital reduction to take SciPack private
- StockAnalysis.com — Scientex (KLSE: SCIENTX) market capitalisation
Disclaimer: This article is for informational and editorial purposes only. It is not a recommendation to buy or sell any securities and does not constitute investment advice.
