The Financial Institutions Development Fund (FIDF) is to sell its stake in listed and non-listed companies worth billions of baht in a bid to generate income.

Stakes in 44 non-listed companies totalling 96.5 million shares will be opened for bidding this month, said Pairoj Hengsakul, the Bank of Thailand's (BOT) assistant governor of  the FIDF's Management and Debt Restructuring Group.

The fund will open the rest of its assets for bidding, including both non-listed and listed companies, in May.

FIDF's assets were mostly derived from now-defunct 56 finance firms after the Bank of Thailand's rescue fund intervened and injected liquidity into them. The fund has a total burden of Bt1.4 trillion from the rehabilitation process of the financial institutions.

In addition, stakes in the SME Bank, Thai Rating Information Service, Sarin Property, Sathorn Thani, Ban Chang Group and Thai Copper Industry are among the 96.5 million shares of the 44 non-listed companies in the pilot auction project.

Pairoj said former shareholders of these companies were the main target for the sales but other companies, organisations and individuals who are interestedin  investing in these assets are also invited to take part in the auction.

The Legal Execution Department also opens for bidding the shares of defunct companies, but it always does so gradually.

For example, if several firms own Company A's shares, the department will open bidding for the shares several times, depending on each stakeholder who wishes to sell their shares at different times.

However, the FIDF usually opens bidding for all shares of a single company in one auction. According to the FIDF, bigger chunks of shares produce more attractive prices.

In addition, the bidding prices for the non-listed companies will be based on book values, while the listed companies' prices have been calculated from average trading prices in the past, Pairoj said.

However, he accepted that some companies had good performance but bad bottom lines, which would also affect share prices.

He declined to comment on whether the current political and economic atmosphere was appropriate for the auction.

"We can sell the shares of the listed companies at an appropriate time," said the assistant governor.

Some non-listed companies have been under the debt-restructuring process and will be sold when they are ready, said a FIDF source.

A total of 96.2 million shares of 32 non-listed companies are scheduled to be opened for bidding until April 20.

The auction of the remaining 12 companies is scheduled for April 25 to May 25.

Anoma Srisukkasem

The Nation