"The Finance Ministry will not interfere in the Bank of Thailand's decision to sell off its holdings in BankThai, Finance Minister Surapong Suebwonglee said yesterday. ''The Finance Ministry has no intention of interfering in the sales process, which is the decision of the board of the Financial Institutions Development Fund,'' he said.
But the ministry and the government had a clear responsibility to ensure that public interests were met, considering that the FIDF's losses of 1.4 trillion baht incurred since the 1997 crisis were ultimately liabilities of the country.
The central bank's FIDF plans to sell its 42.13% stake in BankThai this month. BankThai yesterday requested that its shares be suspended from trade on the Stock Exchange of Thailand pending an announcement on the sale, which could come as early as today. Reported bidders for the FIDF shareholding include HSBC, Standard Chartered, CIMB and TPF Newbridge, a US private equity fund that is the second-largest shareholder of BT at 36.74%. . .
Shares of BankThai (BT), the country's ninth largest bank, last traded at 1.32 baht each, a significant discount from par value of 3.75 baht and a book value of 1.67 baht per share. . .
BankThai reported a first-quarter loss of two billion baht on top of 2007 losses of 6.9 billion, largely as a result of poor investments made in offshore debt instruments, including products linked to sub-prime mortgage assets."
http://www.bangkokpost.com/topstories/tops...s.php?id=128356
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BOT wants to sell troubled BankThai
Started by TheYenta, Jun 20 2008 11:09 AM
1 reply to this topic
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Posted 22 June 2008 - 01:01 PM
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Shares of BankThai (BT), the country's ninth largest bank, last traded at 1.32 baht each, a significant discount from par value of 3.75 baht and a book value of 1.67 baht per share. . .
Obviously, investors have no confidence in the valuation of the bank's portfolio of loans and investments if they are valuing the stock lower than book value. That's going to make selling this bank very difficult for anything less than a fire sale. That's saying a lot for a bank that's listed as Thailand's ninth largest bank !
