Singapore: ThaiBev shares slump after another deferral of brewery unit IPO

Shares of Thai Beverage Pcl. slumped after the company deferred the initial public offering of its brewery unit in Singapore once again, citing “prolonged challenging market conditions” for its decision, Yahoo reported on August 12.

The maker of Chang beer fell as much as 4.4%, the biggest decline in more than a year. It said on August 11 it will continue to monitor market conditions and explore opportunities to maximize shareholder value, including potentially reviewing the proposed spin-off listing “at an appropriate time”.

The announcement comes just months after the firm said it intended to resume the listing of BeerCo. - a plan it has shelved multiple times - and conduct a public offering of as much as about 20% of the unit. ThaiBev, controlled by Thai tycoon Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, was seeking about $800 million to $1 billion in the unit’s IPO, people familiar with the matter previously said.

“The hesitation on ThaiBev’s part may be linked to liquidity concerns in this region,” said Nirgunan Tiruchelvam, an analyst at Tellimer in Singapore. “It is an indictment on the market conditions” rather than a reflection of the operating performance of the beer business, he added.

BeerCo received conditional approval from the exchange for a listing and started gauging investor demand for the offering in June. ThaiBev had previously halted plans for the IPO in May 2020 due to the country’s lockdown in the early days of Covid-19. A second effort was thwarted by the worst wave of the country’s outbreak.

The IPO was set to potentially be Singapore’s biggest since NetLink NBN Trust’s $1.7 billion offering in 2017, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

12 August, 2022