Sammitr Motor plans Bt1-bn IPO to fund new ventures
Sammitr Motor Manufac-turing plans to raise more than Bt1 billion from an initial public offering this year to construct plants for natural gas and biodiesel engines used in commercial vehicles.
It is also joining an international venture to make semi-trailers for the regional logistics industry. Tisco Securities has been appointed as the financial adviser for the IPO and listing on the Stock Exchange of Thailand. Sammitr, which has a registered capital of Bt460 million, makes auto parts, specific-purpose vehicles, hydraulic systems and axles, dies, jigs and pressed parts for agricultural vehicles. It earned about Bt200 million last year on sales of Bt3 billion. Chairman Chao Posirisuk yesterday said Sammitr had been test-running its natural gas engines in Toyota cars for the past three years, with a view to using them in taxis. "The company is now confident of its natural gas-fuelled engines," he said, adding it plans to produce more than 5,000 biodiesel engines per year. Sammitr also signed a deal with China's largest automobile company, CIMC Vehicle Group, and a giant Japanese conglomerate, Sumitomo Corp, to form a company called CIMC-SMM Vehicle Thailand. It will have a registered capital of Bt260 million and will be 55 per cent owned by CIMC, 35 per cent by Sammitr and 10 per cent by Sumitomo. The joint venture will produce semi-trailers to supply the logistics industry, with the hope of tapping into all Asean markets. Its will occupy a 120,000- square-metre manufacturing plant in Phetchaburi. CIMC Vehicle Group's deputy general manager Li Gui Ping said the new venture was expected to begin full operations in February or March. The plant will have a capacity of 10,000 units, worth about Bt3.5 billion, per year. However, in its first three years it will produce only 3,500 units per year. Products will include all types of semi-trailers with flat or corrugated steel floors, dry vans, reefers, refrigerated containers and tank containers for hazardous chemical transport. About 60 per cent of the output would be aimed at Asean markets such as Malaysia, Laos and Vietnam, as well as eastern India. The rest will go to the domestic market. Sumitomo Corp executive officer Kazuhisa Togashi said Sumitomo's role in the joint venture would be as a source of steel and other metals used in the production of semi-trailers.
Sasithorn Ongdee
The Nation
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