Thailand's equity markets stand poised to enter a new stage of development and maturity following the launch this week of IPO's for the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand EGAT and Thai Beverages. The former began pre-marketing a $1 billion plus IPO on Monday, while the latter is scheduled to kick off a similarly sized IPO today Thursday.
Together the two companies could raise up to $2.2 billion. This is a huge sum for Thailand, where there has never been more than $1.7 billion of equity issuance in any one year since the Asian financial crisis.
EGAT alone could raise more than the whole of the...