KEX Expects Outstanding Growth in the Next 5 Years to Align with the Booming E-Commerce

Kerry Express (Thailand) Public Company Limited (KEX) expected a fast-pace growth in the next five years amid the booming e-commerce business as the company is expecting the first trading day on December 24, 2020, at an IPO price of 28 baht per share.

 

The company provides express delivery service providers, offering a comprehensive range of integrated parcel delivery service to customers in the C2C, B2C, and B2B segments in Thailand.

 

In an interview with “Kaohoon” on December 18, 2020, Mr. Issarin Patramai, Chief Investment Officer of KEX, stated that KEX’s growth will align with the growing e-commerce and social-commerce business amid the digitalization in Thailand. Even though the e-commerce business has been booming in Thailand for the previous two to three years, Thailand’s e-commerce retail value, which is around 3.7% to the total retail value is still far behind other countries such as the USA, England, China and Japan, which recorded over 20% from e-commerce. Thus, the company expected the business to have a solid growth in the next three to five years.

 

As for the funding over 8.4 billion baht from selling IPO, Mr. Patramai said that about half of the funding will be budgeted for KEX’s business expansion as the business is expected to continue growing at a fast pace in the next three to five years. This proceeding also includes an investment in technology to increase KEX’s performance. KEX will use the funding from the IPO of 800 million baht for debt repayment to the bank and for working capital.

Mr. Patramai stated that the D/E ratio at 3.8x was due to the implication of TFRS that enforces the company to record rental contracts as debt. Excluding the implication of TFRS, KEX’s D/E will be around 1.7x in which the majority is debt from working capitals.

 

KEX, Thailand’s leading parcel express brand announces the pricing of its initial public offering of 300 million shares at a price of 28 baht per share, the highest price of the offering price range. The shares are expected to start trading on The Stock Exchange of Thailand on 24th December 2020, under the ticker symbol “KEX“.

KEX stated that it had received very strong investor interest with more than 23 times oversubscription from institutional investors and approximately 10 times oversubscription from cornerstone investors. The proceeds from the offering are intended to be used for Kerry Express’s express delivery network expansion and investments in its transportation network to enhance its operational efficiency, in the development of IT systems, the repayment of existing indebtedness to banks and as working capital for business operations.