Thailand debentures to spark Lao electricity development

Thailand debentures to spark Lao electricity development

EDL-Generation hopes to issue debentures of 6.5 billion baht (1.6 trillion kip) in Thailand's capital market to boost electricity capacity for domestic supply and export.

The debenture issue is awaiting approval from the Public Debt Management Office of the Thai Finance Ministry. Once the proposal is authorised, EDL-Gen will file a request with Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission.

EDL-Gen expects the process to be complete this month, and will then be able to issue the debentures in December according to Thai media.

Twin Pine Consulting appointed three banks - Standard Chartered Bank (Thai), the Bank of Ayudhya and TMB - as joint lead arrangers for the debenture issue.

EDL-Gen plans to invest US$1 billion (about 8 trillion kip) between 2015 and 2020 to boost production capacity from 881 MW to 2.272 gigawatts. To reach this target, the company is also looking at issuing debentures in Laos' capital market and other countries in Asean such as Singapore and Malaysia.

This would be the first time a private Lao firm had raised funds in Thailand's capital market, according to Lao officials.

The proposal was given the green light by the Lao government, specifically the Ministry of Finance, a senior official from EDL-Gen told Vientiane Times this week.

EDL-Gen is listed on the Lao Securities Exchange and has enough financial strength to raise capital in the region. The company has registered capital of 4.9 trillion kip, 75 percent of which is owned by EDL. The power provider earned revenue of 1.32 trillion kip last year and recorded a net profit of 971.74 billion kip. In the first half of this year, EDL-Gen earned revenue of 502.41 billion kip and made a net profit of 326.98 billion kip.

vientiane times