In the News: 2004

Thailand Equity Fund Invests USD11 Million in TICON

PR Newswire
20 February 2004

TICON Industrial Connection Public Company Limited (TICON), Thailand's leading industrial facility outsourcing company, announced today that the Thailand Equity Fund ("TEF") has invested USD11.1 million in the Company through a special issue of convertible preferred shares. 

Thailand Equity Fund is a USD245 million special purpose mutual fund sponsored by Lombard Investments, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, and the International Finance Corporation, the private equity arm of the World Bank Group. The fund was formed with support from 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 International Finance Corporation, 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, and fifteen leading Thai banks and other institutions. 

"We believe that TICON is well positioned to directly benefit from Thailand's competitiveness as a regional manufacturing base for Southeast Asia and the growing inflow of direct foreign investment. The Company has a very strong position in the market, and the Thailand Equity Fund will use its global and local network to help source potential business opportunities for the Company," said Mr. Pote Videt, Lombard's Managing Director in Bangkok. 

Increase Capital to Finance Aggressive Expansion Plan 

The new capital will finance TICON's continued expansion. At the end of 2003, the Company operated more than 100 factories leased to local and international manufacturers, with 13 more available for leasing and 58 factories in development, of which 19 have been pre-leased. The proceeds of this private placement, together with the further broadening of the Company's equity base and other financing, will enable TICON to complete its 2004 development program with a comfortable debt-to-equity ratio. 

TICON's development program involves on-going land acquisitions, construction, development and leasing. Last month, the Company acquired 69 rai of land on Pinthong Industrial Estate in Chonburi Province for the development of approximately 20 factories, the first of which will be available for occupancy in early 2005.