Delivery operator Kerry Express was braving the Thai stock market through the conduct of an 8.4-billion-baht initial public offering (IPO).
A report by the Bangkok Post on Thursday said that the Thai Securities and Exchange Commission has given the green light for Kerry Express to publicly sell 300 million of its shares on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET).
Funds to be raised will be used to expand KEX’s network, enhance operating efficiency, repay debts to banks, while the rest will be used for working capital.
The company initially wanted to offer shares at a price ranging between 25 and 28 baht. The final price will be determined on December 15.
The shares will be officially traded on SET by the fourth week of December.
Bangkok Post said that subscriptions will be available for retail investors by December 8, 9, and 14 and between December 16 and 18 for institutional investors.
Prasert Tantayawit, managing director for the investment banking department at Maybank Kim Eng Securities Thailand, said he was confident that the public offer will be warmly welcomed by investors amid the company’s leading market position, coupled with its solid business model, and structural growth prospects.
Veena Lertnimitr, Executive Vice President and Head of Investment Banking at Siam Commercial Bank PCL, said that KEX has already received strong support from institutional investors, with the cornerstone tranche already ten times oversubscribed.
KEX Chief Executive Officer Alex Ng, for his part, said that the high demand for KEX’s shares was owed to the high volume of delivered parcels which jumped by 134.9% over 2014 to 2019, a substantive rate is given that Thailand’s e-commerce to retail penetration rate is still immature.
The growth of e-commerce businesses and the adoption of a new normal lifestyle amid the global pandemic were owed to these results, as customers now prefer to order goods through online channels.
On average, KEX claimed that it delivered around 1.2 million parcels per day, four times higher than the second market leader.
According to Ng, KEX has over 15,000 service points, 1,200 distribution centers, and more than 18,000 employees.
KEX saw its net income last year grow by 12% to 1.33 billion baht from the year before.
During the first half of the year alone, net profit was at 738 million baht, an increase of 36% versus the same period last year.
Photo from Flickr
