Briefs

A total of 16,500 transactions took place during the four-day “SET in the City”, down by 8 per cent from 18,000 last year because of Saturday’s anti-government demonstration, the bourse said.
Kesara Manchusree, executive vice president of the Stock Exchange of Thailand, told Krungthep Turakij TV that Saturday, the day the demonstration took place, had been expected to be the busiest day. But compared with last year, the number of transactions on that day fell by 20 per cent.
The SET said the investment-promotion event drew 130,000 visitors, half of whom did not have an investment account.
The transactions were valued at Bt999 million. Forty-three per cent of that amount was for investment in stocks and derivatives, 37 per cent in mutual funds, and 20 per cent in other products such as gold and insurance.

JMT begins trading
JMT Network Services, a leading non-performing-debt collection and management company, will start trading today after a Bt300-million initial public offering.
“JMT is a subsidiary of Jay Mart using spin-off strategy to boost opportunities for business expansion. Jay Mart has seen the importance of building financial strength and is boosting the flexibility of its subsidiary to reach funding sources,” said SET executive vice president Chanitr Charnchainarong.
JMT sold 30 million shares in the IPO at Bt4 per share, 13.8 times its prospective earnings. Asia Plus Advisory is its financial adviser and Asia Plus Securities is its underwriter. 
Piya Pong-acha, CEO of JMT, said proceeds from the fund-raising would be used to buy and manage non-performing assets, to expand the hire-purchase business, and for working capital. This is in line with the growth trend of retail and hire-purchase (lease to own) loans in the industry. The company aims to maintain its leadership in the collection and management of bad loans.

Coal mining in Myanmar
Energy Earth on Friday signed a joint operating agreement with East Star Company to run coal-mining business in Myanmar.
East Star has a coal-mining concession in Dawei with an area of 1,262 rai.
According to a preliminary survey, the mine has 40 million tonnes of bituminous-coal reserves. Energy Earth will hire a third party, Joint Ore Reserves Committee, to undertake surveying details. If it finds that the coal reserves are less than 40 million tonnes, East Star will find other concessions to ensure that reserves reach that minimum.
The company is expected to start distributing the coal in April and May and realise revenue in the second half of next year.
Currently Energy Earth has coal reserves of 5 million tonnes. With the estimated 40-million-tonne reserve in Myanmar added to that figure, it should be able to cater to customer demand for the next 10 years.
 

Second solar business
Eastern Printing has undertaken its second solar-plant business, aiming to create sustainable revenue growth and as part of its risk-diversification strategy.
Its board of directors on Sunday passed resolutions to approve the company’s subsidiary, EPCO Green Power Plus Co, acquiring 100 per cent of common shares of Aquatist Energy Co from Sungen Investment Holding for Bt15 million.
Aquatist holds 99.97 per cent of Lopburi Solar Co, which holds the right to a power purchase agreement of 5 megawatts.
The board also approved Lopburi Solar acquiring five plots of land in Lop Buri province totalling 119.55 rai for Bt 35 million from Sungen (Thailand) Co.
It also approved Lopburi Solar entering an engineering and procurement contract for the 5MW solar power plant, with Sungen International and Sungen (Thailand) as the contractors. The total EPC contract price is Bt420 million with the initial deposit of Bt100 million.
Eastern Printing’s first solar plant of 10MW in Kanchanaburi province started feeding electricity on October 15. The company expects to realise revenue of Bt50 million from this plant in the current quarter before realising full annual revenue of Bt200 million next year and at least Bt2.8 billion throughout the 25-year contract period. – The Nation