Total Access Communica-tion (DTAC) is going public on June 22 and will offer shares at between Bt35 and Bt42.

The listing plan comes as the political horizon clears. Investment bankers expect more companies to approach the market in the second half of the year.

Siam City Securities assistant managing director Santhad Sanguan-deekul said it was now filing a listing application with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a Bt1-billion initial public offering. Three more companies were preparing to go public next year.

KGI Securities (Thailand) will seek listings for several alternative-energy and hospital companies in the second half.

DTAC chief executive Sigve Brekke said yesterday the company expected to raise between Bt7.8 billion to Bt9.3 billion. The proceeds will be spent on expanding networks, mainly in the northern and southern provinces.

DTAC is currently listed in Singapore and its historical-trading average is around Bt44 each. It closed at US$1.27 (Bt43.79) last night, up more than three-quarters of one per cent.

The company expects to finalise its Thailand offer price on June 13.

It has reduced par value to Bt2 from Bt10 and will offer 222 million shares - or 9.36 per cent of its total.

Of those, 88 million will be newly issued, while 140 million are held by parent company United Commu-nication Industry (Ucom).

The subscription period for retail investors will be between June 12 and June 13. Kasikorn Securities and SCB Securities lead the offering with international support from JP Morgan Securities.

Local and foreign institutional investors can subscribe for 77.7 million shares; 128.76 million shares are reserved for retail and general investors; 11.1 million shares go to employees and 4.44 million shares to companies it does business with.

Following the listing, DTAC will offer Ucom stockholders 1.95 shares for each Ucom share. Ucom will be de-listed and become a wholly-owned subsidiary of DTAC, probably in the third quarter.

After the listing, Thai Telco Holdings and Telenor Asia will own a combined 32.4 per cent of DTAC, Ucom shareholders a combined 35.7 per cent and TOT and CAT Telecom a combined 5.7 per cent.

Currently, Ucom owns 43 per cent of DTAC while Telenor Asia owns 32.6 per cent.

The country's second-largest cellular operator held a road show for retail investors in Bangkok and will have regional events in Khon Kaen, Chiang Mai and Phuket on June 6, June 7 and June 8 respectively.

"It's been our intention to make this offering so the people of Thailand can own DTAC and be a part of the company's future success," Brekke said.

"Not only have we allocated 65 per cent of the total shares to local retail investors but we will guarantee a minimum of 500 shares to all investors to ensure broad and fair distribution. The rest will go to institutional investors," he added.

When listed, DTAC will qualify for a 5-per-cent reduction in corporate income tax for three consecutive years.

The company will maintain the listing of 15.9 per cent of its shares on the Singapore exchange. It will be Thailand's first dual-listed company.

The company has more than 13 million cellular subscribers.

Usanee Mongkolporn

The Nation