Thailand''s stock market for small companies, which has only attracted three new listings so far this year, will meet its 2015 target and match last year''s total of 20, the bourse president said on Thursday. Prapan Charoenprawatt told Reuters he expects small companies in renewable energy and logistics to be among those applying for initial public offerings on the Market for Alternative Investment later this year.
"We are confident to have 20 IPOs this year," he said. On top of the three listings this year, nine companies have submitted applications to Thai regulators for IPOs. At present, the MAI exchange has 112 listings. Last year was a big one for the MAI, created 16 years ago to get listings from small- and medium-sized companies that did not meet requirements of the Securities Exchange of Thailand After the army took power one year ago to end political tensions, the MAI index surged, ending the year up 96 percent. The SET''s benchmark rose 15 percent in 2014.
So far this year, MAI is down about 5 percent while the SET index is up 1.9 percent. Thailand''s weak economic recovery and other factors have kept many investors on the sidelines. Last year, half of MAI''s IPOs saw share prices more than double on the first day of trading. This year, two of the three new listings rose marginally on their first day while one more than doubled.
Prapan said he''s optimistic more small companies will see the benefits of getting listed. "Some firms have opted other sources of funds but most of them still prefer share-offering channel," he said. The MAI has set to add 100 IPOs in five years to 2018 and increase participations of foreign investors and domestic institutional investors from the current level of about 2 percent of market trading value.
Comments
Comments are closed.