BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand’s Big C Retail Corporation has postponed a planned initial public offering (IPO) due to unfavourable market conditions, parent firm Berli Jucker announced after the market closed on Tuesday.
Big C, the supermarket arm of Thai listed trading group Berli Jucker controlled by billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, could raise as much as $1 billion in the IPO as early as the fourth quarter of this year, sources had said in June.
In a statement on Tuesday, Berli Jucker said Big C had considered capital market situations both domestic and international, which were volatile in terms of the global economic situation.
After consultation with its advisers, Big C decided to postpone the IPO plan, it added.
The announcement comes days after Thailand’s largest industrial conglomerate, Siam Cement, decided not to proceed with the domestic IPO of its unit SCG Chemicals, also citing unfavourable market conditions.
The decision could weigh on the IPO of CPF Global Food Solution, a unit of Thai food conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Foods, which sources said expected to raise up to $1.5 billion.
(Reporting by Chayut Setboonsarng; Writing by Orathai Sriring; Editing by Bernadette Baum)