Thailand's two biggest asset management companies (AMCs) have played their cards differently in handling the country's bad assets.
Bangkok Commercial Asset Management (BAM) and Sukhumvit Asset Management (SAM) are state-backed AMCs set up after the 1997 financial crisis.
Over the past decade, the robust Thai economy elevated BAM and SAM to become key players among the more than 30 AMCs in the market.
Assets under management at BAM and SAM have reached more than 400 billion baht for each.
BAM chose to position itself as a private AMC with plans for a stock listing in next year's second quarter.
SAM, meanwhile, styles itself as a public AMC focused on various assets — retail, SME, corporate and residential loans — in addition to bad assets.
BAM president Krit Sesavej said his company's private status offered the flexibility to raise funds and expand.
BAM's target market cap after the initial public offering (IPO) is 20-30 billion baht. The new shares will be offered to retail, institutional and foreign investors.
State agencies and the current major shareholder, the Financial Institutions Development Fund, are likely to retain some stake in the company after the IPO.
BAM is set to buy non-performing loans (NPLs) worth 10 billion baht from three local financial institutions this year.
SAM president Chookiat Jittimaitriskul said his company was interested in buying the NPLs of the SME Development Bank of Thailand.
The company also wants to enter clean loan management but needs more time to set up a system.
Both BAM and SAM hope to become holding companies but with different purposes.
BAM envisions a holding company expanding to other business lines, with asset management remaining as the core business.
SAM's holding company would set up joint ventures with foreign partners to extend the asset management business abroad, particularly in Asean.