Asia Aviation poised for SET listing this week after successful IPO
Asia Aviation, the majority shareholder of Thai AirAsia, will start trading on the Stock Exchange of Thailand on Thursday after the raising of Bt4.48 billion from its initial public offering.
Chief executive officer Tassapon Bijleveld attributed the successful IPO, which took place from May 23-25 when the overall SET Index declined, to the immense interest in Asia Aviation from domestic and foreign investors, both institutional and individual.
"Once our stock is listed on the SET, it will be under lock-up for six months, but we will retain no less than 51 per cent of Asia Aviation shares to comply with Thailand’s Aviation Act by having the 51-per-cent lock-up through the Thailand Securities Depository for a period of no less than five years. On top of this, the stocks under the sponsorship portion that the company has allocated to the employees at the IPO price will be under lock-up for one year as a way of motivating our staff to contribute growth to our company and enhancing investor confidence," he said.
The proceeds from the share sale under the executives portion will be used to settle loans taken under the management buy-out of Asia Aviation stock five years ago, while the proceeds under the company portion will be used in subscription of Thai AirAsia’s rights offering,
increasing Asia Aviation’s ownership in Thai AirAsia from 51 per cent to 55 per cent.
Thai AirAsia will, in turn, use the funds to expand its fleet of Airbus A320 aircraft, increasing the number from 24 to 48 over the next five years in anticipation of higher passenger demand.
Tassapon said the main objective of listing on the bourse was to strengthen Thai AirAsia’s financials in response to regional trade liberalisation under the upcoming Asean Economic Community.
He affirmed the necessity of readying Thai AirAsia for the AEC’s implementation in 2015 and reiterated the airline’s goal of holding the highest market share in Thailand.
The more than 1.21 billion IPO shares at Bt0.10 par value were sold at Bt3.70 apiece.
They comprised 750 million new ordinary shares and 462.5 ordinary shares from existing shareholders, together accounting for 25 per cent of Asia Aviation’s paid-up capital of Bt485 million.
Thanachart Securities and CIMB were joint Thai lead underwriters, with co-underwriters from 10 other brokerage houses. CIMB and Credit Suisse acted |as international managers for |the IPO.
