“The rules will now require that bonds issued by the private sector and listed on the BEX obtain a credit rating of no lower than BBB, he said.
“Furthermore, the bonds traded on the BEX through AOM (Automatic Order Matching) must be the transferable type only. This is because with AOM trading, buyers and sellers do not know their counter–party, nor can they examine the number and type of shareholders. Thus, if investors do not trade carefully, they may trade bonds that are transferable only with limited conditions,” Mr. Santi said.
Presently all bonds traded on the BEX are transferable. However, in the future, there may be both (freely) transferable and those transferable with limited conditions listed. Under such conditions, retail investors may be concerned if they have not carefully considered their actions and trade in the latter type.
For trading via the put-through method (PT), the SET Board allows only for large-volume trading from 10,000 units or THB10 mln., on up. Bonds traded via the PT method may be either (freely) transferable or transferable types with limited conditions.
Mr. Santi also added that: “Trading via the PT method is undertaken by large-scale or institutional investors who have negotiated before sending their orders to the SET’s system. As this group of investors is able to obtain comprehensive information about the bonds they are investing in, the type of bonds traded via the PT method are therefore not restricted.”
People interested in investing in bonds can browse for the details on 42 bonds of leading companies listed on the BEX at www.bex.or.th. If interested, they can send orders to any of the securities companies who are members of the SET.
