Prime Road Alternative Co, the local developer and operator of renewable power, plans to make a backdoor listing on the stock market through MAI-listed Food Capitals Plc, a faster process than an initial public offering.
Somprasong Panjalak, Prime Road's founder, said the backdoor listing is expected to be complete by mid-2019.
The plan aims to ease troublesome operating costs and fierce competition for Food Capitals, the food and beverage franchise operator.
A backdoor listing is a process by which a company gets a stock exchange listing without an IPO. This may occur by merging with a public company or even acquiring it.
Mr Somprasong said the plan involves swapping shares of the two firms and letting shareholders of Prime Road increase their ownership to a 87% stake in Food Capitals, while existing shareholders of Food Capitals will be diluted to 13%.
Food Capitals' debt will be spun off and assets sold at an estimated 1 billion baht in cash, which will be Prime Road's payment, he said.
"There will be cash left over of 576 million baht for Prime Road's capital expenditure in the coming year," Mr Somprasong said.
Food Capitals has an accumulated loss of 2 billion baht, he said, and Prime Road plans to resolve it after the backdoor listing process is done.
Food Capitals will be renamed Prime Road Power Plc with the ticker symbol PRIME. The stock will shift to the energy sector of the market.
Prime Road also plans a second phase of fund-raising with a choice between a public offering and a private placement.
"We have yet to conclude the fund amount," Mr Somprasong said. "Prime Road needs the fast acquirement of capital resources because it plans a further expansion in renewable business in Thailand and overseas countries."
Prime Road has combined solar power projects of 208 megawatts and now operates 182.6MW. The remaining 25.5MW will start up within three years.
Of total capacity, Thailand has 132MW, Japan 68MW and Taiwan 8.5MW.
Mr Somprasong expects 2019 revenue to rise by 33% to 600 million baht, due to newly operating solar power projects in the three countries with capacity of 28.5MW.
He said Prime Road has invested in several projects in its pipeline at 200 million baht but the 2019 budget has yet to be estimated.
The firm is looking at renewable power across Asia for appropriate investment.
"But we need a large amount of funds for future projects," Mr Somprasong said. "We plan to go for other renewable energy such as wind, biomass and waste-to-energy to generate electricity."
