Laos' first corporate bond issue due in December
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EDL-Generation, a power generator in Laos, expects the process for the Bt6.5 billion bond issuance to be completed within this month, marking the first time a Lao company to raise funds in Thailand's capital market.
According to the company, the debenture issue is awaiting approval from Thailand's Public Debt Management Office. Once the proposal is authorised, EDL-Gen will file a request with Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission.
Standard Chartered Bank (Thai), Bank of Ayudhya and TMB Bank are joint lead arrangers for the debenture issue.
EDL-Gen plans to invest US$1 billion (about 8 trillion kip) between 2015 and 2020 to boost production capacity from 881 megawatts to 2.272 gigawatts. To reach this target, the company is also looking at issuing debentures in Laos' capital market and other countries in Asean such as Singapore and Malaysia.
A senior official of EDL-Gen said that the proposal was given the green light by the Lao government, specifically the Ministry of Finance.
EDL-Gen is listed on the Lao Securities Exchange and has enough financial strength to raise capital in the region. The company has registered capital of 4.9 trillion kip, 75 per cent of which is owned by state-owned Electricite du Laos. The power provider earned revenue of 1.32 trillion kip last year and recorded a net profit of 971.74 billion kip. In the first half of this year, EDL-Gen earned revenue of 502.41 billion kip and made a net profit of 326.98 billion kip.
