Asset World to raise up to $1.6 billion in Thailand's biggest listing

Thai billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi's hospitality and retail arm, Asset World Corporation (AWC), aims to raise up to 48 billion baht ($1.6 billion) next month in the biggest listing of an individual company in Thailand. AWC, which announced its initial public offering (IPO) plan in June, said on Wednesday it would sell about 7 billion shares,
plus potentially a further billion in a so-called overallotment option, at 6 baht per share between Sept. 25 and October 3. Thailand's largest stock market listing was True's Digital Infrastructure Fund, which raised 58 billion baht in 2013. But AWC would be the biggest listing by a company, rather than a fund, overtaking state-owned energy PTT's 32 billion baht flotation in 2001. Thirteen cornerstone investors have subscribed for half of AWC's shares, with foreign investors accounting for more than half of subscriptions, including Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC buying $300 million worth of shares.