• 
• 

Published on March 27, 2008

CEO Montri Sornpaisarn said yesterday that Boonchai Sriprachaya-Anunt had joined the company on February 1 as managing director for its Investment Banking Business Line.

Boonchai is responsible for the entire investment-banking unit. He is recognised as veteran in the business with 16 years' experience.

He was the financial adviser underwriting the initial-public-offering shares of state-owned enterprises PTT, PTT Exploration and Production, Thai Airways International, Airports of Thailand and MCOT.

Boonchai said he had worked for Phatra Securities and KTB Securities prior to joining Kim Eng.

"Joining Kim Eng at this time will help the company develop competence in the investment-banking business," he said.

Montri said he expected Boonchai to increase the company's investment-banking income from 4 per cent of revenue last year to 6-8 per cent this year.

"Last year, Kim Eng posted only Bt25 million in investment-banking revenue," he said, adding that one reason for booking less income last year was the unfavourable business environment.

Montri said the company now had 20 deals in the pipeline awaiting contract signing.

Boonchai added that the company expected to become one of the top three investment-banking performers over the next three years.

"With the potential of workers and the trend of business expansion, the investment-banking business is expected to grow accordingly," he said.

Over the past 10 years, companies have raised funds from the capital market 1.8 times higher than bank borrowing.

Montri targets an overall market share of 8-9 per cent for Kim Eng this year, up from 8.1 per cent last year. Most of the revenue will be from brokerage fees.

The company also plans to open a fund-management business this year, having already received approval from the Securities and Exchanges Commission.

Meanwhile, Boonchai said he had prepared a team for Kim Eng's Direct Investment business, which will invest in both listed and non-listed companies. Investment will start in the second or third quarter with initial outlays of Bt500 million to Bt1 billion.

He said the new business was set to compensate for lower income from brokerage fees in the future. In foreign security houses, the income breakdown is normally not more than 20 per cent from brokerage fees while income from investments total more than 40 per cent.

Siriporn Chanjindamanee

The Nation