Thailand's national bourse is nearing a 40% rise in the market value of shares listed on it over five years to about $700 billion, driven by offerings from infrastructure funds, family businesses and company spin-offs, its new president said.
Pakorn Peetathawatchai, who was promoted to the top job at the Stock Exchange of Thailand in June from vice-president, was optimistic about growth of the stock market despite a recent sell-off by foreign investors and a listless first half for listings on the bourse.
"The country's fundamentals are strong and companies have good earnings," said Mr Pakorn. "Investors are reacting to external factors like tapering and uncertainty from a trade conflict".
The exchange is targeting market capitalisation growth of 250 billion baht each year from initial public offerings (IPOs) over the next five years to reach its goal of 22-23 trillion baht by 2023 from 16.8 trillion now, he said.
Another 200 billion baht a year will come from already listed companies issuing additional shares, said Mr Pakorn.
So far this year, total listings added just 20 billion baht to the market cap at IPO prices compared with 426 billion for the whole of 2017, the bourse's website shows. But the IPO pipeline is heating up.
Family-owned sports drink giant Osotspa, which had revenue of 26.2 billion baht in 2017, is planning to list 20.1% of shares this year, the website shows.
A US$3 billion government infrastructure fund is expected to list this year, after several delays. Reuters
