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.
