Thailand’s stock market is expectedto embrace a bright prospective in 2005 with more companies’ growing need for capital, according to the Stock Exchange of Thailand(SET).
Local companies will raise more than 70 billion Thai baht(about 1.75 billion US dollars) through initial public offerings(IPOs) alone next year, assuming that 90 to 100 firms will go public, SET Senior Executive Vice President Sopawadee Lertmanus-chai was quoted on Tuesday by newspaper Nation as saying.
She noted that estimate could fall far short since as many as 230 firms have expressed interest in raising cash on the primary equity market next year.
Among those, 32 have already submitted listing applications with stock regulators.
Sopawadee expected that some 140 billion baht(3.5 billion US dollars) worth of capital would have been raised by the end of this year from the SET and the Market for Alternative Investment(MAI).
The growing interest in IPOs is believed to have stemmed from current business expansion and the corporate income tax breaks that are due at the end of 2005.
“The country’s economic growth- predicted at 5 to 5.5 percent next year- is a driving force encouraging companies to raise funds to broaden their business,” said Sopawadee.