SCIB SHARE PRICE TO BE DECIDED EARLY NEXT YEAR

       Siam City Bank has said its major shareholder, the Financial Institutions Development Fund, will be able to decide the bank's share price for potential buyers of its stake by early next year.The FIDF, which holds about 47 per cent of SCIB's shares, has been engaged in the process of selling its stake for years and is expected to conclude the sale once the price is set. The share sale is therefore now likely to be concluded by the midฌdle of next year.
       "The FIDF expects it will get a financial advisฌer by October 22. It will have the adviser study all the information for about three to four weeks. Then, it will submit a prospectus to potential SCIB share buyers within another two weeks. So, we expect that we will know the final [share] price early next year," Chaiwat Utaiwan, presiฌdent and CEO of SCIB, said over the weekend.
       Currently, the FIDF holds 47.58 per cent of SCIB, which is the seventhlargest bank in Thailand.
       Early last week, the FIDF's board approved the hiring of a financial advisor in order to suggest strategy and a sharesale plan for SCIB. The adviser is expected to be appointed on October 22.
       The Bank of Thailand said the entire process for the SCIB share sale was likely to be concluded within the second quarter of next year.
       The share sale has attracted many buyers, including Thanachart Group, whose subฌsidiary Thanachart Bank's major shareholder is Canada's Scotia Bank. Other potential buyers include the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, HSBC and Barclays.
       Chaiwat added that once the FIDF submitted a prospectus to buyers, they would send their letฌters of intent to buy SCIB shares to the fund and propose their pricing.
       The financial adviser and the FIDF will then consider the responses and allow buyers to conฌduct due diligence. The FIDF and the Finance Ministry will make the final decision on the purchaser.
       SCIB has more than 400 branches with banking business licences and conducts universal banking via subsidiaries, includฌing insurance, life insurance, leasฌing and securities.
       As of the end of June, SCIB's assets were accounted at Bt414 bilฌlion for separatฌed statement and Bt420 bilฌlion for consoliฌdated stateฌment. The bank's lending stood at Bt279 billion and deposits at Bt334 billion.
       Chaiwat said the bank would not be able to extend credit as targeted this year at Bt18 bilฌlion, which would have repฌresented annual growth of 6 per cent. New lendฌing will instead be in the range of Bt8 billion to Bt15 billion.
       He added that the bank had approved some large credits, but many corporate customers and small and mediumsized enterprise clients had not taken up their credit lines. In addition, these corporate and SME customers are repaying their existing debts.
       He expects the bank's lending growth for next year to either expand slightly from this year or remain flat, as it is currently under the process of a change in major shareholder. The change would affect the bank's organisation as well as business strategy and lendฌing growth, he said.

       "The bank will not be able to extend credit as targeted this year at Bt18 billion, which would have represented annual growl of 6 per cent. New lending will instead be in the range of Bt8 billion to Bt15 billion."