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Published on February 25, 2008

The 166-million-Singaporean-dollar (Bt3.7 billion) transaction will take Mitsubishi UFJ Securi-ties' stake in Kim-Eng Holding up to 15 per cent, making the Japanese firm the second largest shareholder. Kim-Eng Holding owns 57 per cent of Kim Eng Securities (Thailand).

The bid by Mitsubishi UFJ on Friday came one day after the two firms agreed to set up an asset-management company as part of a broad cooperation agreement.

"We've got a signal from our parent firm that the partner will coordinate business with us. It will help us grow our customer base," Kim Eng Securities (Thailand) CEO Montree Sornpaisarn said.

Japanese investors are expect-ed to become active in project finance and investment banking in Thailand, he said.

The partnership will create more synergy for Kim Eng Holding and its group.

It will expand Kim Eng Securities (Thailand)'s network as the scopes of business of Kim Eng Holding and Mitsubishi UFJ Securities are different.

Kim Eng Securities (Thailand) is the local leader in stock-market trading volume, but most of its customers are local investors.

The brokerage earned a consolidated net profit of Bt551.38 million last year.

Siriporn Chanjindamanee

The Nation