Thai Airport Agency to Sell 30% Stake in IPO

February 11, 2004

Thai Airport Agency to Sell 30% Stake in IPO 
Business Times Singapore

(BANGKOK) The government will sell a 30 per cent stake
in Airports of Thailand (AOT) in an initial public
offering this month in a range of 38 baht to 43 baht
per share in a partial privatisation, a company source
said yesterday.

The source said the government would sell 428 million
new AOT shares from Feb 26-27 and on March 1 in a bid
to raise about 17 billion baht (S$731 million).

The final offer price would be announced on March 2,
he said.

'We had expected to sell the shares at about 45-50
baht each, but we have had to cut the price range a
bit because of weak market conditions,' the source
said.

The Thai stock market SETI, which had fallen to a
two-month low earlier this month on bird flu fears,
has just rebounded, up 0.55 per cent higher at 0450
GMT on Tuesday after a rise of almost 3 per cent on
Monday.

The bourse hit a seven-year high last month.

Some 360 million of the AOT shares would be offered to
general investors with 40 per cent of that number
being offered to foreigners, the company source said.

Another 54 million shares would be reserved for a
greenshoe option if demand warranted and the remaining
14 million would be sold to employees, he said.
  
The shares are expected to start trading on the Stock
Exchange of Thailand on March 11.

The company said in October the proceeds would be used
to fund part of the cost of constructing Bangkok's new
second airport east of the city.

AOT, which operates Bangkok's Don Muang International
Airport, is among several state enterprises planning
to go public this year and the IPO would raise its
registered capital to 14.28 billion baht.

The IPO was delayed from last year when AOT earnings
were hit by the Sars epidemic and the war in Iraq.

AOT would be the first state firm to enter the Thai
bourse this year.

Thailand's largest electricity firm, state-owned
Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT),
also plans an IPO, the country's largest, by May to
raise at least 70 billion baht in a partial
privatisation plan. - Reuters

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