Posted on 15 Jan 2008
The stainless steel producer Lohakit Metal Plc will float 80 million shares at 2.76 baht each in its initial public offering from today until Thursday.
The company, which expects to list on the Stock Exchange of Thailand on Jan 24 under the symbol LHK, has set pricing for the IPO at 7.67 times earnings, compared with the average P/E of nine times for other listed steel companies.
Prasarn Akarapongpisak, the managing director of Lohakit Metal, said that of the 210 million baht raised from the offering, 90 million will be used for machinery upgrades, 80 million for short-term debt repayments and the rest for working capital.
He said the company's dividend policy was to pay at least 40% of net profits.
The Akarapongpisak family is the major shareholder of the company, and will see its holdings diluted to 67.5% post-IPO from 90% now. Lohakit will list a total of 320 million shares at one baht par value.
Seamico Securities is the lead underwriter for the offering. The eight co-underwriters are: Bualuang Securities, Trinity Securities, KGI (
Panu Kongton, the vice-president of Seamico Securities, said Lohakit posted 2006 net profits of 83.95 million baht on revenues of 2.14 billion, compared with losses of 65.24 million on revenues of 1.98 billion the previous year.
For the first half of 2007, the company had profits of 44 million on revenues of 1.32 billion.
Mr Prasarn said 90% of its sales were to the local market, with the rest to clients in
Lohakit is a stainless steel supplier to manufacturers in the electrical appliance, kitchenware and auto parts sectors. The company sees steel demand increasing as construction begins on the government's planned
