The company is to offer 112 million of the 164 million shares left over from its previous share allotment to existing shareholders at a ratio of one new share for three already held. The remainder will be offered to specific investors, Dragon said in a filing with the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET).

The 112 million shares will be sold at Bt1.20 each, compared with Bt2.50 per share under its original private-placement plan.

However, the price of the remaining 52 million shares will be based on the weighted average closing price of Dragon shares seven working days prior to the date on which the board of the directors approves the share sale.

The stock ended yesterday down 8.22 per cent at Bt1.34.

Proceeds from the sale will be used to increase the company's working capital and new investment.

Last August, Dragon One said it planned to issue 350 million shares, of which 150 million would be reserved for warrant conversion and 200 million would be sold via private placement.

CEO Jrarat Pingclasai admitted the revised capital-increase plan resulted from the higher offering price than the stock's current market price.

"The board agreed that the share-allocation method should be revised, because the market price had fallen below the Bt2.50 offering price. To sell the stocks through private placement was then difficult. To make it more attractive to buyers, we decided to sell the majority of them to existing shareholders," he said.

Based on the company's shareholder structure as of last September 9, Jrarat held 90.51 million shares, and he is expected to spend Bt108.61 million in exercising his full rights.

Meanwhile, Dragon One's board has approved the purchase of 20,370 common shares of Application Hosting Service from IEC Business Partners for Bt2,454.54 apiece, or a total of about Bt50 million. The deal is expected to be completed next month.

In the first nine months of last year, the company posted a net profit of Bt70.57 million, compared with a 24.84 million net loss for the same period a year earlier.