Thai bourse ditches plans to lure regional firms for primary listing

The Thai stock exchange has ditched plans to lure firms from neighbouring countries to launch initial public offerings in Thailand because they struggle to meet accounting and governance standards, a top exchange official said on Tuesday.
The exchange will instead focus on encouraging secondary listings of foreign firms and on funds holding foreign assets to meet demand for Thai investors seeking exposure to international markets, said Santi Kiranand, executive vice president of the Stock Exchange of Thailand.
The SET had planned to encourage companies in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar to raise funds in Thailand's capital markets. Companies in those countries can face challenges raising funds as local exchanges are either very small or non-existent.
"We would like to have primary listing vehicle but to do the secondary listing might be more possible," Santi told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.
"We expect to see (a secondary listing) by next year."
The SET is targeting Southeast Asian firms in energy, healthcare and infrastructure, he said. There are as yet no secondary listings on the Thai bourse.
The Bank of Thailand relaxed capital controls this year, allowing Thai investors to take their money abroad. In response, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the SET have laid the groundwork for new instruments to keep investors at home while giving them exposure to international markets.
The exchange is also promoting the listing of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and Thai holding firms with foreign assets, Santi said.
MFC Industrial Real Estate Investment Trust (MIT), worth about 1 billion baht ($27.99 million), is expected to be the first listed REIT with investment in foreign assets when it launches an IPO later this year, Santi said.
MIT will offer investors exposure to a UK data centre, he said.
Amata Vn Pcl, a Thai holding firm developing an industrial estate in Vietnam and a unit of Amata Corp, is also slated for debut later this year and would be the third holding firm with foreign assets to list, Santi said.
The SET and the Market for Alternative Investment, the bourse for smaller firms, have seen 23 IPOs worth 189.5 billion baht ($5.30 billion) to date in 2015, about 76 percent of the 250-billion-baht ($7.19 billion) target for the year.
Listed firms have posted modest earnings growth this year as the economy slows. Average six-month net profits of listed firms on SET were 442.27 billion baht ($12.38 billion), up 3.81 percent year-on-year, exchange data showed.