Future Fund climbs in debut for region’s top IPO of 2018

The units, trading under the name TFFIF, hit a closing price of Bt10.30 per unit. 
The first-day performance gives the TFF a total value of Bt 2.328 billion.
 The funding vehicle for infrastructure development is expected to yield dividends of 4.75 per cent in the first year of public trading in its units, Chuvinda Hanratanakool, the fund manager and chief executive of Krungthai Asset Management Pcl, said yesterday at the opening event for the TFF's first trading day on the Stock Exchange of Thailand.
Up to 45 per cent of the net toll revenues from the Chalong Rat and Burapha Withi expressways in the next 30 years will be used to fund the project, enabling that dividend target for unit holders in the fund’s debut year.
 “Investors in the TFF will be paid dividends twice a year if warranted by retained earnings. 
“Furthermore, individual investors will enjoy an eight-year exemption on taxes on dividends,” Chuvinda said.
Prapas Kong-ied, director-general of the State Enterprise Policy Office, said: “The TFF will allow the government to raise funds for its infrastructure projects without having to put pressure on its annual budget. 
“Instead of waiting for 30 years, the government can raise the same sum of capital immediately and start investing in its projects today to develop the economic structure of the country.”
Suchart Cholsakpipa, governor of the Expressway Authority of Thailand, conceded that the delays to the IPO launch could have made some investors hesitant. 
However, with the units offered amounting to a capital value of Bt 44.7 billion, the official pointed to the TFF’s distinction in being |the biggest IPO in the region this year.

Stable investment
Prapas said the TFF presented a stable and safe choice for investors, allowing them to diversify their risks by investing in the infrastructural development of the country.”
Chuvinda said projections for the revenue growth for both expressways are set at 4 to 5 per cent for the next year. 
All investors in the TFF are based in Thailand, split evenly between the retail and institutional sides, she said.
The two expressways have a total length of 83.2 kilometres. The Chalong Rat Expressway links Bangkok's central business district with the northern residential district. 
The revenue prospects for the expressway are very promising, Chuvinda said. 
“This is because we have seen a growing volume of traffic as the residential area in the northern region of Bangkok continues to grow,” she said.
The Burapha Withi Express-way, which links Bangna in the south of Bangkok to Chon |Buri province on the Gulf of Thailand, has high potential for growth as it links Bangkok to the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), an special economic area which is targeted to be the technological manufacturing hub for Thailand and the Asean region, she said.
The Cabinet resolved that at a study be conducted to determine the feasibility of raising additional funds through the TFF to finance the toll-based operation of Motorways No. 7 (Bangkok - Ban Chang) and No. 9 (Bangkok Outer Ring Road). 
“The current obstacle to including these two routes into the TFF has to do with legislation. 
“I am currently working to amend these items of legislation so that they can be included in the TFF by next year,” Prapas said.