Taking advantage of a 50% rise in its share price so far this year, Bangkok Bank has announced plans to re-finance Bt46 billion $1.15 billion of expensive hybrid securities undertaken at the height of the financial crisis. The move has been expected all year and many believe Kasikorn Bank the old Thai Farmers Bank may follow suit with plans to re-finance up to Bt40 billion $1 billion in hybrids.
Bangkok Bank's house bank, Morgan Stanley, is lead managing the offering, which has an upper filing limit for 533 million shares. However, the bank is expected to issue much less than this, given it has set target proceeds of Bt28 billion plus a 15%...
