Brokers poised for consolidation - Liberalization to lower trading fees

Thailand's securities landscape is poised for rapid consolidation and change after regulators last week announced a new roadmap for sector liberalisation.

On Friday, the SEC board approved a five-year timeframe for the liberalisation of trading fees and new licences.

New applications for brokerage licences, which have been frozen at 39 for the past several years, will be accepted starting from January 2012.

Trading commissions, currently fixed at a minimum of 0.25 percent, will begin to fall from January 2010 to December 2011, with clients and brokers able to freely negotiate rates starting from 2012. Commission fees for online trade, now fixed at 0.2 percent, will begin to decline next year.

Trading of SAIC stock begins today; shares are set at $15

  Wall Street prepared to begin trading the stock of San Diego's SAIC today, after the employee-owned defense contractor priced the shares for its initial public offering last night at $15.

Buoyed by institutional investors' strong interest in the stock and yesterday's surge in the Dow Jones industrial average, SAIC's investment firms priced the stock at the high end of expectations.

SAIC's pricing apparently was undeterred by the withdrawal of three other IPOs yesterday. El Pollo Loco, based in Irvine; Ohio-based Hexion Specialty Chemicals; and Washington-based Light Sciences had planned to raise a combined $717 million through public stock offerings.

PTT global trading unit targets top five - One trillion baht in revenue by 2010

PTT Plc's international trading unit has set its sights on becoming one of the top-five oil-trading organisations in the region over the next four years, with a target to generate one trillion baht in revenue by 2010.

According to Surong Bulakul, executive vice-president for the unit, the company urgently needed more access to the global market and strategic partners overseas to help explore new opportunities.

Currently, PTT's international trading unit operates two companies abroad: PTT Singapore Co and PTT Philippines Co. A new company in China was also in the works, Mr Surong said.

The state-owned oil and gas conglomerate has operated the international trading unit for more than 25 years. It initially focused only on crude-oil imports to supply the refineries of Thai Oil and Bangchak Petroleum.