Finansia Syrus, partners seek securities licence in Myanmar

FINANSIA Syrus Securities (FSS), one of the top five brokerages in Thailand, has formed a joint venture with local partners to apply for a securities licence in Myanmar.

The move is part of its plan to become a leading full-service brokerage in the Greater Mekong Subregion after expanding into Cambodia last year through a joint-venture format and operating in Vietnam since 2007 via a cooperative arrangement.

FSS chief executive officer Chuangchai Nawongs said yesterday that the company had joined with Tun Foundation Bank and Myanmar Investment, a private-equity firm, to form a joint-venture brokerage with paid-up capital of US$15 million (Bt523 million).

By shareholder structure, he said, FSS will hold about 24 per cent, while Tun Foundation Bank will hold 51 per cent and Myanmar Investment 25 per cent.

"We are one of 20 companies competing for securities licences in Myanmar," Chuangchai said, adding that the authorities might put off consideration of the matter until after the general election. He said that here in Thailand, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Stock Exchange of Thailand were considering full-service brokerage licences for FSS's newly established SBI Thai Online Securities Co. SBITO is meant to serve the rising demand of a new generation of investors who want to handle their own business-matching and dispense with marketing salespersons.

This new joint venture, in which FSS will hold 45 per cent and SBI Group, the No 1 provider of online stock-trading services in Japan, will hold 55 per cent, will have total paid-up capital of Bt500 million, Chuangchai said.

"If approved, SBITO is expected to open services in September," he said, adding that the company's top management team of six to seven people would be sent by SBI Group.

SBITO is a further collaboration between the two companies after FSS spent about Bt80 million on a 20-per-cent stake in a joint venture called SBI Royal Securities in Cambodia late last year. SBI Group holds 65 per cent of that JV.

Adviser for IPO

In collaboration with SBI Group, Chuangchai said FSS had been appointed as financial adviser for an initial public offering of shares valued at more than $100 million for Sihanoukville's deep-sea port and co-underwriter of IPO shares for Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone. Both IPOs are expected to be launched in October.

As for Vietnam, where FSS has been operating for eight years via a cooperation with local brokerage SSI Securities Services, Chuangchai said the company had seen a large number of new accounts opened for trading on the Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi stock markets. FSS expects IPO deals in Vietnam, where the government has pushed for privatisation of some of its state-owned enterprises.

"We are still a full-service brokerage in Thailand, but are expanding our base to other countries in the Greater Mekong Subregion such as Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos for risk diversification," he said.