The Securities and ExchangeCommission (SEC) of Thailand has amended rules and regulations, requiringcompanies applying for the IPO filing in 2024 to submit their annual financialstatements for the last three years and the last quarterly financialstatements. Therefore, the financial statements have to be prepared inaccordance with the financial reporting standards and audited or reviewed (inthe case of quarterly financial statements) by a certified public accountantapproved by the SEC.
With the new rules, it may takelonger for IPO preparation and cause many companies to expedite theirregistration process to be completed within 2024.
In 2022, Thailand’s IPOs raised thehighest level of funds in Southeast Asia, with a total of 3.6 billion USDraised by 42 listing companies. Thailand's IPO market has shown great promisein recent years.
2023 is set to be another key year tokeep an eye on IPO funding in an environment of intense competition.
As of February 28 this year,there were 75 cases in the process of pre-consultation with the SEC (only casessubmitted in 2021), and the upcoming IPOs report for the first quarterreported 20 cases that were under review for filing or already approved. Therehave also already been 12 IPOs, higher than the number of IPOs in the same periodof 2022, according to the SEC’s Monthly Capital Market Summary Report.
This implies that manycompanies are showing greater interest in listing in the stock exchange toissue shares for public offering. The benefits of listing for organisationshave become increasingly clearer, including access to long-term financing,creating a credible image for the company, professional financial management,long-term resilience of the company, as well as increasing businessopportunities in the future, local media noted./.