27 ตุลาคม 2549
Private Placement of shares in CPN by its Major Shareholder
October 27, 2006
Subject Private Placement of shares in Central Pattana Public
Company Limited by its Major Shareholder
To The President,
The Stock Exchange of Thailand
Central Pattana Public Company Limited ("CPN") would like to
announce that we were informed by one of our major
shareholders, the Thailand Equity Fund, who held 8.2% in the
Company, has completed a private placement of 71.9 million
secondary shares (Existing Shares) in CPN. The Thailand Equity
Fund, which will have a remaining shareholding of 4.9% after
this placement, told CPN that the reason for selling its shares
was to increase the free-float of CPN shares to improve stock
liquidity and allow more investors to benefit from the
Company's ongoing business expansion.
Explanation given to CPN by the Thailand Equity Fund:
"The Thailand Equity Fund has discussed and jointly agreed with
the Chirathivat Family, CPN's largest shareholder, that due to
the recent gain in recognition of CPN among local and foreign
investors, evident by the inclusion of CPN in SET50 Index in
January 2006 and MSCI Index in May 2006, the Thailand Equity
Fund and the Chirathivat Family strongly believed that
increasing the free-float proportion of CPN shares would help
improve stock liquidity and allow more investors to benefit
from the Company's ongoing business expansion. As a result,
the Thailand Equity Fund had planned the private placement of
71,900,400 shares or 3.3% of total shareholding (2,178,816,000
shares), which would increase the free-float proportion from
30.8% to 34.1%. The transaction was executed through an
overnight book-building process and marketed to institutional
investors globally, with Phatra Securities, Merrill Lynch
(Singapore) and UBS AG acting as underwriters."
Please be informed accordingly.
Yours faithfully,
(Mr.Naris Cheyklin)
Secretary to the Board of Director
Remark : The Thailand Equity Fund is a US$245 million
private equity fund sponsored by Lombard Investments, Inc.,
headquartered in San Francisco, and the International Finance
Corporation ("IFC"), part of the World Bank Group. The fund was
formed with the support of the Government of the Kingdom of
Thailand in order to make private equity investments in
operationally competitive Thai businesses. Investors in the
fund include the IFC, California Public Employees' Retirement
System ("CalPERS"), Asian Development Bank, DEG (a member of
Germany's KfW Group), the Ministry of Finance of the
Government of Thailand, ten leading Thai banks, and other
institutions.