(Bloomberg) -- Jasmine Broadband Internet Infrastructure Fund, set up by Thailand’s second-biggest provider of high-speed Internet services, raised $1.7 billion in an initial public offering, people with knowledge of the matter said.
The fund priced its sale of 5.5 billion units at 10 baht each, the low end of a marketed range, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private. It offered the units at 10 baht to 10.50 baht apiece, according to a company statement last month.
Jasmine Broadband is listing after the nation’s benchmark SET Index rose 27 percent in the past year, outpacing the 10 percent gain in the MSCI South East Asia Index. A $1.7 billion offering would be Thailand’s biggest since December 2013, when a similar
infrastructure fund set up by Jasmine’s larger broadband rival True Corp Pcl raised $1.8 billion, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
“The competition in Thailand’s broadband is intensifying,” Pornsook Amonvadekul, an analyst at Finansia Syrus Securities Pcl in Bangkok, said by phone. “The sale of the fund will improve Jasmine’s cash flows and provide them new financing for investment.”
The fund will use the proceeds to buy fiber-optic networks from its sponsor Jasmine International Pcl, according to its website. Shares of Jasmine International rose 1.2 percent in Bangkok today, giving it a market value of $1.8 billion.
Jasmine International Chief Executive Officer Pete Bodharamik said in November the company aims to sign up 400,000 new Internet subscribers this year, adding to its existing base of 1.5 million customers. True, controlled by billionaire Dhanin Chearavanont, said last month it will sell as much as 8,000 kilometers of fiber-optic cable and 350 telecommunications towers to its infrastructure fund.
Bualuang Securities Pcl and Morgan Stanley arranged the Jasmine sale. Chuenkamol Treesuttacheep, chief financial officer of Jasmine International, couldn’t be reached for comment at her office.