2012 targets to be scaled down
The Stock Exchange of Thailand plans to lower several targets of its 2012 business plan because of the flood crisis.
“What we have revised downwards in our business plan next year is our target for new listings, for example, in accordance with the new situation. We will propose a new business plan to the SET’s board on October 26,” said the president of the exchange, Charamporn Jotikasthira.
He said the SET would focus more on promoting mergers and acquisitions as part of the Capital Development Market Plan. It will do this by making the tax rules related to M&A clearer.
“Companies that operate the same business should merge to strengthen their competitiveness, making for lower operation costs. Recently, PTT Aromatics and Refineries and PTT Chemical merged into a new company, |PTT Global Chemical, with combined market capitalisation of Bt240 billion, the largest market cap among listed petrochemical firms.”
Chanitr Charnchainarong, vice president of SET, said it would push M&A on to the national agenda, boosting such activities internationally and not just domest-|ically.
The Cabinet has approved relaxing some levies imposed on merged companies.
“Acquiring businesses overseas would give Thai companies a short cut for starting businesses out there,” he said.
Chanitr said the SET was looking into how to boost M&A by small Thai companies and not only large ones.
Given the financial crises in other countries, Thai firms should be ready to buy cheap assets overseas. Currently, only 15-20 of the SET’s 50 largest listed companies (those in SET50 Index) have plans to go abroad.
