Business

Tuesday November 17, 2009

CIMB Group set for dual-listing on Thai bourse

By FINTAN NG


PETALING JAYA: In a move to raise its regional profile, CIMB Group Holdings Bhd – Malaysia’s second-largest financial services provider by assets – is going for a dual-listing on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET). The dual-listing is expected to be completed in the first half of next year.

Analysts contacted by StarBiz said the listing would raise the group’s profile as it expanded and sourced for business from multinational firms in the region.

The local research head of a US-based bank said the SET listing would not have much impact on the group’s financial performance but it certainly would facilitate business with foreign firms with Thai operations as the group’s profile would be raised via the listing.

“I think it’s more for the business in the longer term,” she said.

JPMorgan Chase Bank Bhd analyst Chris Oh said listing could help the group’s business in Thailand by allowing a bigger client reach.

“If it’s listed, it helps,” he said.

Currently, CIMB Group’s 93.15%-owned subsidiary CIMB Thai Bank plc is listed on the SET while the group is also the largest shareholder of Indonesia’s PT Bank CIMB Niaga tbk with a 77.24% stake and has a 19.99% stake in China’s Bank of Yingkou Co Ltd.

The dual-listing is only the second such for companies listed on Bursa Malaysia with Media Chinese International Ltd, which took over Sin Chew Media Corp Bhd’s listing last year, being the other company with a listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

According to a joint statement by CIMB Group’s chief executive Datuk Seri Nazir Razak and SET president Patareeya Benjapolchai, the dual-listing would be undertaken via an initial public offering of up to 35 million shares to be made available to retail and institutional share investors in Thailand.

The statement said that based on the market capitalisation of US$13.7bil as at Nov 13, CIMB Group would be among the three largest companies on the SET and the largest financial services group. CIMB Group’s share price rose 2.78%, or 36 sen, to close at RM13.28 yesterday.

An analyst with a foreign-based investment bank said there would be very little impact on existing shares as it was less than 1% of the 3.58 billion CIMB Group shares out in the market.

“The shares listed on both exchanges are fully convertible and there’re opportunities for arbitrage although there’re timing and currency risks involved,” she said.


CIMB : [Stock Watch] [News]


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