Thailand
Meat producer drops after Thailand’s second-largest IPO in 2022
SHARES of Betagro declined in their debut in Bangkok on Wednesday (Nov 2), following Thailand’s second-largest initial public offering (IPO) this year.
Its shares fell as much as 6.9 per cent from the IPO price. They were priced at 40 baht apiece after the meat producer and its major shareholders sold 500 million shares. The IPO raised 20 billion baht (S$750.8 million), including the exercise of a green-shoe option. It’s the third-largest listing in South-east Asia since the start of 2022.
Betagro’s debut is the largest in the Thai exchange since insurer Thai Life Insurance’s listing more than three months ago. While share sales have slowed down globally amid rising interest rates and surging volatility in equities trading, the market in South-east Asia’s second-biggest economy remained more active than others in the region.
The country’s benchmark stock index has gained about 3 per cent over the past three months, with overseas funds pumping in a net US$227 million into domestic equities last month, data compiled by Bloomberg show. That contrasts with a slump of more than 10 per cent for the MSCI Asia Pacific Index over the same period.
Betagro is raising funds to expand its farms and animal feed production in Thailand and neighbouring countries, according to its regulatory filing. About 182 million shares, or 42 per cent of the total offering, were subscribed by local and overseas cornerstone investors including Caas Capital Master Fund, Magna Umbrella Fund and Ghisallo Master Fund, the filing showed.
Kiatnakin Phatra Securities and Bualuang Securities are the lead arrangers for local investors; Bank of America is the lead manager for the international offering, according to the filing. BLOOMBERG