Thai Brewing restarts beer business spin-off and listing plan, intends to raise $1 billion

ThaiBev has restarted plans to spin off its beer business BeerCo on the main board of the Singapore Exchange, expected to raise as much as US$1 billion (over S$1.3 billion).
Thailand Brewing Group issued a statement before the opening of the market on May 5 to disclose the restart of BeerCo’s spin-off and listing plan, offering about 20% of its shares. Singapore Exchange has no objection to this.

The group said an independent board and management team would be better able to develop the huge growth potential of the beer business. Although the specific amount of funds raised was not specified in the statement, the group said it would use part of the proceeds to repay debts and improve its financial position, as well as increase the group’s ability to invest in future business expansion.

In addition, the group believes that this move will unlock shareholder value, allow the spin-off beer business to obtain a transparent valuation benchmark, and allow the group’s core business to obtain a clearer assessment and valuation.

The group announced BeerCo’s spin-off and listing plan in February last year, but later postponed the listing plan in mid-April due to the coronavirus epidemic.
According to Reuters, people familiar with the matter said that Thai Brewing will raise as much as $1 billion through the listing plan.

Once implemented, the planned spin-off of BeerCo will be the largest initial public offering (IPO) on SGX in nearly six years. Netlink previously raised $2.45 billion in its 2017 IPO.
BeerCo operates three breweries in Thailand and a network of 26 breweries in Vietnam. As of the 2021 fiscal year at the end of September last year, BeerCo achieved about 4.2079 billion yuan in revenue and about 342.5 million yuan in net profit.

The group is expected to release its unaudited results for the second quarter and first half of fiscal 2022 ending at the end of March after the market closes on the 13th of this month.

Thai Brewery is controlled by the wealthy Thai businessman Su Xuming, and its beverage brands include Chang beer and alcoholic beverage Mekhong Rum.