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Published on December 20, 2007

TPG Newbridge can hold a stake up to 37 per cent if no existing shareholders subscribe to the bank's capital increase other than the Financial Institutions Development Fund (FIDF) and TPG Newbridge - including its partners Blum Strategic III BT Hong Kong and MSOF Hong Kong BT - the bank said in a statement yesterday.

The holding of TPG Newbridge - the Asian investment arm of Texas Pacific - can be raised to 42 per cent if no existing shareholders subscribe to the newly issued shares other than it and the FIDF. The FIDF and TPG Newbridge will subscribe to the remaining shares, BankThai said.

According to Stock Exchange of Thailand data as of October 26, the FIDF held 33 per cent, and Newbridge Sukhothai Netherlands and Brum Strategic III BT Hong Kong owned 25 per cent and 4 per cent, respectively.

BankThai, a small bank, recently announced it would cut its rights offering share price from Bt1.73 to Bt1.36 apiece and delayed the subscription period to between December 27 and January 4.

The reduction will lower the bank's fund-raising amount from the originally planned Bt7.7 billion to Bt6.05 billion.

BankThai will offer 4.45 billion capital-increase shares to existing shareholders at a ratio of one share held for two new ones. Any shares left over from the rights offering will be sold to the FIDF and TPG Newbridge at Bt1.38 each, also down from Bt1.75.

The bank for the third quarter this year plunged into a net loss of Bt3.04 billion, compared with a net profit

of Bt383.9 million in the c

orresponding period last year.

The net loss could be ascribed to an additional reserve provision for its investment in collateralised debt obligations in order to comply with the Bank of Thailand's qualitative standard.

 Meanwhile, the bank reported that its non-performing loans stood at Bt3.6 billion, accounting for 3.62 per cent of its outstanding credit at the end of September.

The Nation