Briefs

The Securities and Exchange Commission declined to grant Thai Industrial & Engineering Service (TIES) a waiver to postpone its submission of its rectified and audited 2014 financial statements. The SEC also declined to TIES a deadline extension for the submission of its first-quarter financial statements.
Accordingly, TIES must submit to the SEC and publicly disclose the financial statements urgently. They were due on May 8 and May 15 respectively.
Earlier, the SEC had directed TIES to rectify its 2014 financial statements due to the auditor’s qualified opinion that construction-cost reports for construction contracts were not prepared in accordance with its accounting policy. It also said the accounting system and internal controls regarding the reports were not followed, which may affect the accuracy of the financial statements, while TIES neither compared the purchase and sale prices of the related party transactions to market prices nor explained if the price differences were reasonable. TIES said it needed the deadline extensions because it was in the process of gathering related documents and evidence for the auditor.
SEC maintained the deadlines because it said the financial statements provided investors and shareholders with vital information for making investment decisions and monitoring listed companies’ performances.

Overall boom in business for MAI companies
Companies listed on the Market for Alternative Investment (MAI) reported total first-quarter sales of Bt30.12 billion, up 3.06 per cent from a year ago.
As a result, their combined net profit increased to Bt2.35 billion, a 43.52 per cent year-on-year increase.
MAI president Prapan Charoenprawatt said that 109 MAI-listed companies out of the 114 total reported their first-quarter performances. Their cost of sales decreased 2.61 per cent from a year earlier. As a result, their gross profit margin increased to 25.95 per cent from 21.64 per cent during the same period last year, and their net profits increased to Bt2.35 billion, a 43.52 per cent increase from Bt1.64 billion recorded during the same period in 2014.
“Listed firms performed well in terms of sales and net profit growth, although global and domestic economic growth has been sluggish since last year,” Prapan said. “It was underpinned by their ability to manage cost of goods sold which have pushed up profitability, proven with an upbeat gross profit margin and EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation] which increased by 38.65 per cent to Bt4.58 billion from Bt3.31 billion during the same period in 2014.”

Gulf Cogeneration’s debentures downgraded
Fitch Ratings (Thailand) Ltd has downgraded the national long-term rating on Gulf Cogeneration Co Ltd’s Bt2.9 billion guaranteed debentures maturing April 2016 to AA-(tha) from AA(tha). The agency also placed the debentures’ rating on rating watch negative. The rating action follows the downgrade of the guarantor, DEPFA BANK Plc’s long-term issuer default rating to BBB from BBB+ and the placement of its ratings on rating watch negative.

Amata and Summit Group list joint REIT
Amata Corp, Thailand’s second-largest industrial land developer, has teamed with unlisted auto-parts maker Summit Group to list a real estate investment trust (REIT) worth up to Bt4.75 billion in June. Amata Summit Growth REIT will invest in the freehold and 30-year leasehold of 88 ready-built factories covering 160,000 square metres in Amata’s two industrial estates, chief marketing officer Viboon Kromadit told reporters.
Amata and Summit Group will hold a combined 25 per cent stake in the REIT, while 75 per cent will be offered to investors, mostly institutions, Viboon said, adding he expected a good response from investors at a time when Thai interest rates are falling. The trust is expected to give returns of 8.7 per cent in the first year, said Pornvipa Tangtrongchit, head of investment banking at Kasikornbank, the underwriter of the REIT. – Reuters

PE investors like the look of Southeast Asia
Private equity (PE) investors were lured by Southeast Asia’s strong potential in 2014, despite intense competition and localised macro instability that tamped down overall performance.
According to Bain & Co’s recently released Southeast Asia Private Equity Report 2015, PE funds, or general partners, nudged investment value to US$5.9 billion (Bt197 million) – just slightly higher than the previous year but still 7 per cent below the five-year average. The exit count rose from 26 to 30 last year, but about half were valued at less than $50 million. As a result, the exit value across the region slid to $4.4 billion – the worst showing since 2006.
Thailand remains a small PE market, but now that the country is more stable, Sebastien Lamy, a Bain partner and co-author of the report, suggests acquisitions and exits will resume.