Shipper Prima Marine ready to set IPO shares afloat
Prima Marine Plc (PRM), Thailand’s largest shipping company for liquid petroleum and petrochemical products, has finalised the price of its IPO at eight baht per share, to be open for subscription from today to Friday, with trading starting this month.
The company has assigned Siam Commercial Bank, Kasikorn Securities, Asia Plus Securities, Finansia Syrus Securities, Tisco Securities and
RHB Thailand Securities to be leading underwriters.
Chief executive Chanwit Anukkul said PRM is seeking to raise 5.2 billion baht from the 650 million shares allocated for the IPO, which will be used to fund business expansion.
Some 14.5 billion baht has been earmarked from now until 2019, primarily to more than double the company’s number of tankers to 47, helping serve rising demand in Southeast Asia, said Mr Chanwit.
Manpong Senanarong, managing director of Kasikorn Securities, said PRM is the largest integrated service provider in Thailand for the transport and storage of liquid petroleum and petrochemicals, serving those working in exploration and production as well as downstream industries.
“It is a company with strong knowledge of floating storage units (FSUs), marine management and human resources, as well as strong experience in shipping,” said Mr Manpong.
Veena Lertnimitr, executive vice-president of Siam Commercial Bank Plc’s primary distribution division, said apart from buying new vessels, the rest of the funds raised through the IPO will be used as working capital and to pay back loans.
“More than 40 fund managers are interested in PRM’s IPO shares,” Ms Veena said.
As of April, PRM and its subsidiaries had a fleet of 22 ships with carrying capacity of 2,219,002 deadweight tonnage (DWT). This excludes its business partners, which own 13 vessels with carrying capacity of 251,183 DWT.
PRM had earlier reported plans to expand its fleet during 2017-2019, i ncluding nine transport vessels with carrying capacity of 3,000-10,000 DWT each, at a projected cost of 2.34 billion baht.
It also set aside 6.9 billion baht for 11 more large transport vessels, including one ship with carrying capacity of 14,000 DWT, a large crude carrier and a medium-ranged vessel.
The expansion efforts are set to increase the company’s transport volume by 16,700 million litres per year.
The company also plans to purchase another two FSUs worth 1.1 billion baht to serve its Thai oil exploration and production business.
Since the 1980s, PRM has grown from being a small marine service unit under the Nathalin Group, primarily providing marine transport for PTT Plc and its subsidiaries.