PTT Plc, the national oil and gas conglomerate, expects to submit a filing for PTT Oil and Retail Co (PTTOR) to the Securities and Exchange Commission by the fourth quarter after completing an asset transfer on July 1.
Tevin: IPO being planned for 2019
Tevin Vongvanich, president and chief executive of PTT, the parent of PTTOR, said the latter will begin operations at the beginning of July.
He said PTT's assets in oil and retail business are being transferred to PTTOR, which will cut PTT's assets from 120 billion baht to 100 billion.
But some oil facility assets still remain under PTT, such as the national legal oil reserves, with the oil depot and cooking gas storage in Sri Racha, Chon Buri.
Mr Tevin said the initial public offering (IPO) for PTTOR on the stock market is planned for the second quarter of 2019. But a financial adviser for PTTOR's IPO has yet to be selected, he said.
"PTTOR will need at least a quarter to let investors witness its financial performance before holding the IPO roadshow," Mr Tevin said.
Jiraphon Kawswat, PTT's vice-president for oil and retail, will be the first president and chief executive of PTTOR. She was appointed by PTT's board two weeks ago.
Mr Tevin said listing PTTOR is in line with PTT's strategic plan to push its fuel retail business to become a global brand, so it needs to get more cash from the IPO programme and make its business management more flexible.
PTTOR's main business is fuel retail and wholesale, representing 80% of 2017 profits, while its non-oil business accounted for the rest.
The company aims for its non-oil unit to contribute 30% of that share over the next five years.
PTTOR operates 1,894 petrol stations. Of those, 1,662 stations are running locally and an additional 232 outlets are in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and the Philippines.
The company's non-oil business -- Cafe Amazon -- has 2,304 outlets. PTT operates 2,152 Cafe Amazon stores locally and 152 branches in other countries.
Separately, PTT granted an engineering, procurement and construction contract worth 6.231 billion baht to Kazakhstan's state-owned Kaz Stroy Service to develop the 200km fifth-phase gas pipeline in Thailand.
Construction on the project will start soon, and the pipeline is scheduled to go online in 2021.
PTT also cut its 2018 capital investment plan by 12% to 2.21 billion baht because of delayed projects. Mr Tevin said the delays will not hurt PTT's overall business, as the projects are still in the pipeline.
PTT shares closed yesterday on the Stock Exchange of Thailand at 48 baht, up 50 satang, in trade worth 3.6 billion baht.
