Thailand: ThaiBev goes ahead with Singaporean Listing

Thai Beverage Plc (ThaiBev) will go ahead with listing plans on the Singaporean bourse despite mounting pressure from protestors opposed to the Shin Corp share deal with Temasek Holdings, Bangkok Post posted on March 9.

The nation's biggest alcoholic drinks producer announced yesterday that it would move forward with earlier plans to list on Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX), despite calls from some factions to boycott the country's products.

Kasemsant Weerakul, ThaiBev's vice-president for corporate communications, said the filing was expected to be submitted to SGX once ThaiBev's financial results were approved by the company's shareholders at the end of this month. "The listing plan is not involved with the current [political] situation. The listing is part of our previous plans," he said.

He added that the company's first choice had been to list on the Stock Exchange of Thailand, but protests from religious groups had led Thai Beverages to put these plans on hold. However, the firm still wanted to list on the SET.

ThaiBev, best known for the market leaders Chang beer and Mekhong rum, had sales of around 90 billion baht in 2004 with a profit of 10 billion baht. If ThaiBev is listed on SGX, it would be among the top 10 largest stocks by market capitalisation and the biggest of the four alcoholic beverage firms on the Singapore bourse.

In its filing with the Thai SEC, ThaiBev said it had a registered capital of 22 billion baht, which would increase to 29 billion baht with the issue of seven billion ordinary shares with a par value of one baht each. The listing is to raise funds for expansion.

Yesterday the firm expanded its lines with the introduction of new Chang Light beer to strengthen its leadership in the beer market, worth 80 billion baht in total.

Chang Light was expected to capture a 50 percent market share of the light beer market of 35 million litres annually, Somchai Suthikulpanich, managing director of Thai Beverage Marketing Co, a marketing arm of ThaiBev, said.This year another two new beer brands, standard-priced and premium, are set to be added to the company's portfolio.

Last year, all ThaiBev's beer brands, including Archa, controlled a 60 percent share of the 80-billion-baht beer market, the company claimed.

In 2006, the firm projected that it would raise its total market share by one or two percentage points after the introduction of the three new beer brands.

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