Bangkok--24 Mar--SET
The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) welcomes Lease IT pcl, operating leasing, hire purchase and factoring for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), to its Market for Alternative Investment (mai). The company will list and start trading on March 25, under the ticker symbol “LIT,” after raising THB 151 million (approximately USD 4.67 million).
Prapan Charoenprawatt, mai President, said that LIT, a subsidiary of SVOA pcl (SVOA), realized the growth potential and wanted to strengthen financial status to ensure that its leasing business grow continuously, and therefore decided to spin off LIT through an initial public offering (IPO).
LIT operates lending activities for SMEs having limitations to get loans from financial institutions. There are four types of loans which are leasing, hire purchase, factoring, and other financial services, such as bid bond, project backup financing, including trade finance.
LIT has a paid-up registered capital of THB 200 million, with a par value of THB 1.00 each, consisting of 116 million existing common shares and 84 million newly-issued shares. It sold a total of 90 million shares, of which 33.6 million shares went to LIT's shareholders during March 12-14, while 52.2 million shares to the general public and 4.2 million shares to the company’s directors and employees at THB 1.8 per share. Finansia Syrus Securities pcl is the financial advisor and lead underwriter.
Sompon Aketerajit, LIT’s managing director, said that LIT felt honored and very pleased to be listed on mai. The fund raised would be used to expand lending business and working capital to support the company’s growth in the future.
LIT's three major shareholders after the IPO are SVOA (47 percent), Prasit Karnchanasakchai (8 percent) and Intanate Group (3.34 percent). The IPO price had a price/earnings ratio (P/E) of 11.25 times, calculated by using 2013 earnings worth of THB 32.1 million, divided by the number of fully-diluted shares, equivalent to earnings per share of THB 0.16. Its dividend policy is to pay no less than 50 percent of net profits after corporate taxes and reserves.
For more information on LIT, please see the company's prospectus at the Securities and Exchange Commission's website at www.sec.or.th and general information at the company's website at www.leaseit.co.th and www.mai.or.th .