The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) has amended the criteria for the new listing of securities on SET and Market for Alternative Investment (mai), aiming to enhance securities’ quality and increase liquidity, ultimately to strengthen capital market growth, effective from January 1, 2017. In addition, SET and mai have also revised the minimum par value of listed firms to be no less than THB 0.50, effective October 1, 2016 onwards, while exploring new approaches to facilitate startups and small firms to access funds.
SET President Kesara Manchusree said that this amended criteria has underlined SET’s strategic plan to continually enhance securities’ quality and increase liquidity. It aimed to fortify capital market foundation, responding to changing business environment in that the sizes of newly listed firms have already been larger.
Among the highlights of the newly amended criteria, the companies that apply to list its common shares on SET and mai must have positive shareholders’ equity before initial public offering (IPO). For the listing of mai, companies must have paid-up capital and shareholder’s equity “not less than THB 50 million”, with net profits in the latest year “not less than THB 10 million”.
In addition, newly listed on mai must have minimum free floats of “not less than 25% of the paid-up capital,” applying the same measure as SET’s, to increase liquidity in the stock market. The amended criteria also include the increase in size of the company to be listed by using the new market capitalization measure, effective from January 1, 2017. Meanwhile, these amended criteria would not affect the firms in IPO pipeline.
Moreover, in order to standardize and make it easier for investors to understand, SET and mai have revised the minimum par value specification of listed firms to be “no less than THB 0.50 per share,” effective October 1, 2016. However, there are exceptions for listed firms which currently have less than THB 0.50/ share, or have closing price for each trading day not less than THB 100 continuously for a certain period, or be under restructuring process.
In addition, SET has sought new approaches to facilitate startups and small businesses to access funds to help them grow their businesses.