Muangthai Leasing Plc is set to ramp up its expansion to 1,000 branches nationwide by 2017 once it raises sufficient funds through its initial public offering (IOPO) on the Stock Exchange of Thailand in this year's fourth quarter.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission last Friday, the company said it would offer 545 million shares to the public, accounting for 25.71% of its shares.
After the IPO, Muangthai Leasing will have a combined 2.12 billion shares, with registered capital of 2.12 billion baht, up from 1.575 billion baht now.
Holdings of the Petaumpai family, the company's majority shareholders, will be diluted to 66% from 89%.
Founded in 1992, Muangthai Leasing — which has no connection to Muang Thai Life Assurance and SET-listed Muang Thai Insurance, majority owned by the Lamsam family — is engaged mainly in providing car title loans, car loans and loans for farm machinery.
The company now operates 467 branches in the central, northern, eastern and northeastern regions. No branch has been set up in the South.
Chief executive Chuchat Petaumpai reported compound annual growth of 17.2% in new loans, with last year's figures amounting to 9.84 billion baht.
In the first half of this year, new loans increased by 26.2% year-on-year to 5.81 billion baht, with motorcycle title loans accounting for 84%.
This was followed by car loans (up by 12%), loans for agricultural machinery (3%) and personal loans (1%).
Muangthai Leasing used to offer hire-purchase loans for motorcycles, but the service was ended in 2001 because most motorcycle distributors also offer financial services to customers.
In addition, it runs the wholly owned Muangthai Leasing Insurance Broker subsidiary to provide automobile insurance.
Mr Chuchat said the company's non-performing loan rate was relatively low at only 1.7%, below the 2-3% reported by general automobile title lenders.
First-half revenue totalled 873 million baht, up by 19.7% year-on-year, for a net profit of 258 million, up by 112%.