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The Market for Alternative Investment (mai), under The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) group, will focus on increasing the number of quality listed companies, including ensuring that the companies which are not ready for listing and social enterprises (SEs) can access funding conveniently, and boosting market capitalization, said newly-appointed mai President Prapan Charoenprawatt.
mai would cooperate with mai Listed Company Association (maiA) to encourage firms to take advantage of the capital market by raising funds and using the right financial instruments for quality and sustainable growth. mai would also develop quality in corporate governance and social responsibility among listed firms, Prapan, who was appointed as the fifth president of mai from March 1 onwards, added.
To develop the stock market and its listed companies sustainably, mai has aimed to increase its listings by 100 companies over the next five years, raise the market capitalization of existing firms to grow strongly with quality, and build up the companies which are not ready for listing and SEs so that they can qualify to access funding easily.
“Family businesses are among the target groups for listing, as they represent 80 percent of Thai businesses and their heirs mostly have systematic thinking on how to run their firms. In addition, we also see opportunities in renewable energy, health and beauty businesses, and top new companies, e.g., digital TV operators, industrial robot producers, and the Thai premier league football team,” Prapan said.
“mai will work with partners to provide know-how for small-sized companies and to help those not been ready for listing so that they can reach funding conveniently and list on the stock market,” Prapan added.
The alternative market will celebrate its 15th anniversary in June 2014. Currently, there are 95 companies listed on mai. As of March 18, 2014, mai index closed at 400.83 points, up 17.03 percent since the start of this year with market capitalization of THB 179.81 billion and average trading value of THB 1.18 billion per day.
