Thailand Future Fund is on track to go public later this year, says the head of the State Enterprise Policy Office.
The State Enterprise Policy Office (Sepo) yesterday confirmed that Thailand Future Fund (TFF) is still on track to go public later this year, its chief says.
There are no indications that the TFF’s listing plan will be postponed, director-general of the Sepo Ekniti Nitithanprapas said.
The Revenue Transfer Agreement will be put before the Expressway Authority of Thailand’s (Exat) board on July 12 before it is forwarded to the Council of State, he said, adding that the Council of State is expected to spend around a month to interpret the agreement and the contract to set up the TFF. It will be signed if the Council of State does not raise any issue.
The next step will be to submit the initial public offering (IPO) filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The process is expected to be completed this year, he said.
Santi Kiranand, Stock Exchange of Thailand’s senior executive vice-president, recently said the TFF’s listing plan was likely to be pushed back to early next year due to a glitch in the amendment of Exat’s revenue contract to transfer revenue to the government’s infrastructure fund.
“TFF’s fund-raising should match the Rama III Road-Dao Khanong expressway project to prevent proceeds from being left idle as there is a cost for fund mobilisation,” he said.
Mr Ekniti said the timing of TFF’s IPO sales depends on fund usage to construct the expressway linking Rama III RoadDao Khanong and the unit offering in the primary market should not be done in low season.
He earlier said the appropriate period for the IPO is after October, but it should not be close to Christmas, when investor appetite is low.
The cabinet in May approved a proposal to use two expressways as underlying assets for the TFF. Under the proposal, 45% of future revenue from the Chalong Rat Expressway (Ram Intra-At Narong) and Burapha Withi Expressway (Bang Na-Chon Buri), owned by Exat, will be backed by TFF units.
The Sepo estimates 45 billion baht will be raised from offering the first batch of TFF’s units to the public, but the exact amount of proceeds from the IPO depends on investors valuation of the expressways.