The waiver will apply to both initial and annual listing fees and trading fees, and will be an extension of the current waiver, which is due to expire at the end of this year. (SET regulations provide for trading fees of 0.005% of sales value.) Currently listed bonds will have their annual and trading fees waived until end-December 2006 also.
“Extending the waivers will boost the number bond listings, and increase transactions, as member companies will have lower costs. The Thai bond market will therefore be more active and develop further,” Mr. Santi Kiranand, Ph.D., BEX CEO said.
The BEX became operational in 2003 and has waived its listing and trading fees since then to boost both demand and supply in the market during this initial stage of the secondary bond market.
As of December 1, 2005, there were a total of 73 listed issues on the BEX, with total outstanding value of the bonds equivalent to THB730.55 billion (approx. USD17.82 billion). These are comprised of 59 corporate bond issues having an outstanding value of THB250.77 billion (approx. USD6.12 billion), and 19 government bond issues worth THB284.17 billion (approx. USD6.93 billion).
