Banpu's buy-back scheme boosts price

Banpu witnessed a 4 per cent increase in share price in the morning session today, following the company's plan to buy back shares from shareholders.

Banpu gained Bt15 to end the morning session at Bt393. This is despite the reported a 54 per cent plunge in the annualised net profit.

The company announced today the plan to buy back 13.56 million shares, or 5 per cent of total issued shares. It has allocated Bt6.15 billion for the purpose.

It also announced that the annualised net profit plunged from Bt20 billion in 2011 to Bt9.3 billion in 2012.

The management attributed the decline to lower performance of coal business and absence of gain from investment disposal.

The operating profit also decreased by 21 per cent on year, though sale revenue increased 4 per cent on year to Bt117.34 billion.