Keeen keen to list on local stock exchange

Keeen Co, a local maker of products for oil spill clean-up operations, plans to list on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) in the next few years, the first innovation business to be listed on the capital market.

The move came after the company was invited by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to draft a plan for listing on the SET as a way to help raise funds for such a sunrise business to grow.

The SEC hopes that this will be another way to support the innovation sector’s expansion after several government attempts failed to provide full backing over the past decade.

Keeen, which was previously named Hi-Grimm Environmental and Research Co, makes products that remove oil slicks with microorganisms and enzymes and bioremediation.

The products are a result of joint research with the National Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (Biotec), which spent up to two years working on the products.

“Most of the substances that were used to deal with oil spills tended to be chemicals that left the oil to sink into the seabed. But organisms help degrade the oil slick easily with no negative effects,” said Watson Ariyaphuttarat, Keeen’s founder and chief industrial ecologist.

He said that bioremediation techniques had become a major mechanism for removing oil residues from effected shorelines.

The company is seeking a financial adviser by the end of the year to help draft a plan to launch an initial public offering (IPO) later, Mr Watson said.

The company plans to raise funds from the IPO and use the proceeds to develop production facilities in Asia and Europe.

In fact, the company saw its soft launch in 2010, when its products were introduced to the public, before commercial production kicked off in 2012, winning several prizes at international innovations contests in Japan, China and Malaysia.

Initial sales were not impressive with revenue below 100 million baht in the first year of its commercial launch. However, sales tripled to 300 million baht the following year, of which 60% came from the domestic market since most users were industrial companies ranging from petroleum businesses to firms in the food and automotive sectors.

Mr Watson said he expected a jump to 1 billion baht within the next three years due to rising global trends, with people switching to bio-organic products rather than chemicals.

The company plans to set up 12 sales offices in several countries in Asia in addition to Finland.

Before launching the IPO, Keeen plans to readjust its business culture and work process to make it more international in order to facilitate its global expansion since the current image of the company is that of a family business. Most of the major shareholders are member of the Ariyaphuttarat family.

The company is also developing a remover of oil stains for household use under the Umi brand.

Lily Eurwilaichitr, deputy executive director of Biotec, said this was a significant move for the company’s sustainable growth.

She added that Thailand had plenty of room to develop biotechnology businesses because Biotec recently opened the Thailand Bioresources Research Centre in Pathum Thani as a depository and distribution centre of more than 70,000 strains of microorganisms.