Raja Ferry Port plans IPO to raise funds
RAJA Ferry Port plans to raise funds from the public to finance a built-to-order ferry worth more than Bt200 million to serve the tourism boom in the lower Gulf of Thailand.
“We expect the ferry business in the South will rise steadily in line with economic expansion and the government’s tourism-promotion policy, especially for Samui and Pha Ngan islands,” managing director Apichart Chayopas said yesterday.
Raja Ferry Port, one of the country’s three providers of ferry and boat services, mainly carries passengers between mainland Surat Thani and Samui, as well as Koh Pha Ngan. It commands more than half of the Bt3-billion market.
Apart from carrying passengers, Apichart said the company also transported consumer goods, vehicles, trucks, large-scale devices and machinery as well as providing a large-scale logistics business for Surat Thani province’s Don Sak-Samui and Don Sak-Pha Ngan routes.
He said Raja Ferry Port expected its current annual passenger tally of 600,000 would reach 1 million within three years. Traffic between the mainland and the two islands will increase as a result of the new airport on Koh Pha Ngan, which is expected to be in service by the end of this year or early in 2016.
“Although the number of tourists from the West has declined, those from Asian countries have been on the rise, especially from China, Singapore and Malaysia,” Apichart said.
The company has the largest ferry fleet in the country with 12 vessels, providing 40 trips a day.
Raja Ferry Port, which has appointed Triple A Plus Advisory Co as financial adviser for its listing on the Market for Alternative Investment, plans the sale of 38 million shares in an initial public offering (IPO).
The company’s registered capital is Bt132 million. About 80 per cent of its shares are held by the Chayopas family and the rest by relatives and other founders.
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Pinmanee Makmontana, managing director of Triple A Plus Advisory, said Raja Ferry Port had an outstanding record of performance with a debt-to-equity ratio of only 0.64 time and sizeable retained earnings.
It has total assets of Bt750 million, and last year it posted Bt85 million in net profit on revenue of Bt665 million. Earnings per share were 65 satang.
However, Pinmanee declined to give more details on the IPO price, as the company was in the process of preparing for filing the application to the Securities and Exchange Commission, expecting that the process would be complete by the end of December.
Apichart said proceeds from the IPO would be used to buy a new ferry with gross tonnage of 1,100 and to refinance some of its debts. There is now a lack of second-hand vessels available in the market. The company’s ferry fleet has an average age of about 30 years.
He said that in the first quarter of this year, the company posted Bt29 million in net profit on Bt156 million in revenue, mainly from its passenger service.
Asked whether Raja Ferry Port was interested in the government’s East-West Ferry project, providing ferry services between Pattaya and Hua Hin, Apichart said the company was studying the feasibility of the proposal. If it is worthy of investment, he is interested in it.
The project is an initiative of the Transport Ministry to provide an alternative for the fast-growing traffic between tourism destinations on the Gulf’s east and west shores.
The ministry has set a budget of Bt30 million for fiscal years 2015 and 2016 for a feasibility study on construction of ferry terminals on the east and west shores of the Gulf of Thailand.
Travelling by ferry from Chon Buri to Prachuap Khiri Khan province would shorten the distance to 100 kilometres and transit time to two hours, compared with 300km by car with six to seven hours of transit time.
