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80 million shares to be offered at year-end
WORANUJ MANEERUNGSEE and NUNTAWUN POLKUAMDEE
Thai Beverage Plc, the brewer of Chang beer, submitted a listing application to the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday to enter the Stock Exchange of Thailand by year-end.
ThaiBev will float 80 million shares of one baht par value in its public offering on the Stock Exchange of Thailand. The offering represents just 0.3% of the total outstanding shares in ThaiBev, which is also listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange.
The shares to be offered to Thai investors are currently held by Siriwana Co, a private company owned by the liquor tycoon and ThaiBev founder Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi.
The ThaiBev listing, which will be the second dual-listing for the SET after mobile operator DTAC, will be the second attempt for the country's largest alcoholic beverage company to enter the market.
A previous listing attempt was derailed in 2005 due to protests led by Maj Gen Chamlong Srimuang, a leader of the People's Alliance for Democracy, who argued against the listing for moral grounds.
ThaiBev listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange in May 2006. The company currently has a market capitalisation of 130 billion baht on the SGX, with 25.11 billion shares outstanding and a free-float of more than 20%.
Ueychai Tantha-Obhas, a ThaiBev director and senior vice-president, said the regulatory environment for the alcoholic business had improved considerably after the passage of the 2008 Alcoholic Beverage Control Act.
"With this new law, the alcoholic business is now being regulated fairly and effectively. We can answer all questions of those who oppose us as to why we seek listing on the SET again," he said.
Mr Ueychai said ThaiBev had been invited by the SET itself to list on the local market, and that the company was happy to do so to allow Thais an opportunity to hold shares in the company.
Phatra Securities and SCB Securities are the financial advisers for the listing.
"If everything goes smoothly, we can list ThaiBev shares on the Thai market at year-end," Mr Ueychai said.
The listing application is expected to take one month before approval, after which the public offering will be held. Once listed, ThaiBev will be among the top 10 companies listed on the SET in terms of market capitalisation.
SEC official Charunphan Intararoong confirmed that ThaiBev had filed its dual-listing proposal to the SEC.
As the share offering would be from shares held by existing major shareholders, ThaiBev would not be required to undergo review required for initial public offerings. The SEC will review ThaiBev's disclosure practices and corporate standards for compliance with local securities law.
"The listing of ThaiBev will help strengthen the Thai capital market, being a new big-cap stock to attract foreign investors," Mrs Charunphan said.
Details of the offering have yet to be finalised. Pricing will be based on ThaiBev share prices as quoted on the SGX, which closed yesterday at S$0.225, or approximately 5.10 baht per share based on current exchange rates. The company's IPO in 2006 was priced at S$0.28.
An analyst said the dual-listing would help increase trading liquidity for ThaiBev, which currently has relatively low activity on the SGX.
"You can see a similar case with DTAC. The dual listing helped boost DTAC's liquidity. Singapore investors are not really familiar with Thai firms even though they are quite large companies, such as DTAC and ThaiBev," the analyst said.
ThaiBev recorded a first-half net profit of five billion baht, down 4.6% from the same period last year. Sales revenue rose 4% year-on-year to 51 billion baht.
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