Can I Buy Thai Stocks?

[Onefortheroad]

I am a non resident and i would like to buy some stocks in Thai companys like Bumrungrad hospital. Is that legal? How do I go about it? Is there an on-line broker I can deal with? Must I pay tax?

[Arkady]

Of course you can. Open an account with a Thai broker and you can buy whatever you want. Even if a company's foreign ownership limit is already full, you can buy non-voting depositary receipts (NVDRs) legally. They have all rights except votes.

[jumnien]

No problem buying Thai stocks for farang. There is no capital gains tax, but you must pay 10% on all dividends. If your last name is "Shinawatra" the junta will request a 37% capital gains tax if they are running low on cash.

[RusT]

Head over to www.set.or.th - it will tell you nearly everything you need to know. Pick out a brokerage house (Seamico, Kasikorn, Kimeng etc) and give them a call. They'll tell you what you need to do to get set up.

[Temporaneo]

http://inv4.asiaplus.co.th/abn/web/eng/index.jsp

or http://www.seamico.com/eng/home.asp this one for online trading makes 0.15% commission.

P.S. Why buy Bumrungrad ? It quotes 5 times book value. Please buy MK, GSTEEL, GFPT ,PF, FANCY, SINGER, CFRESH, CHUO instead (need urgently to see them back to paid price )

[samran]

http://inv4.asiaplus.co.th/abn/web/eng/index.jsp

or http://www.seamico.com/eng/home.asp this one for online trading makes 0.15% commission.

P.S. Why buy Bumrungrad ? It quotes 5 times book value. Please buy MK, GSTEEL, GFPT ,PF, FANCY, SINGER, CFRESH, CHUO instead (need urgently to see them back to paid price )

who just went up 11% since I bought them about 2 weeks ago! I've met some of the management, which was key for me. They have some interesting ideas for the future. Medical tourism like you've never seen.

[Abrak]

http://inv4.asiaplus.co.th/abn/web/eng/index.jsp

or http://www.seamico.com/eng/home.asp this one for online trading makes 0.15% commission.

P.S. Why buy Bumrungrad ? It quotes 5 times book value. Please buy MK, GSTEEL, GFPT ,PF, FANCY, SINGER, CFRESH, CHUO instead (need urgently to see them back to paid price )

Book isnt that relevant for Bumrungrad - they expanded their hospital and borrowed in dollars and so suffered a huge loss (in the 1997 baht devaluation) - thus writing off most of their balance sheet. Better to look at the earnings stream coming from their medical operations which is pretty impressive. Of course it is nothing like as cheap as it was when it first listed.

[Wekhin]

Yes, you can. Here is a list of brokers.

http://www.set.or.th/en/education/brokers/list_p1.html

[baksidaa]

http://inv4.asiaplus.co.th/abn/web/eng/index.jsp

or http://www.seamico.com/eng/home.asp this one for online trading makes 0.15% commission.

P.S. Why buy Bumrungrad ? It quotes 5 times book value. Please buy MK, GSTEEL, GFPT ,PF, FANCY, SINGER, CFRESH, CHUO instead (need urgently to see them back to paid price )

Book value is one factor we take into account when valuing stocks or rather finding under valued stocks, however it must be put into context.

There are a couple of things which I see as being more important, being their initial rate of return or the more available PER, debt vs equity but the most important for making long term capital gain is consistent growth of earnings.

Take one of the recommended stocks on this thread SINGER, going by Price to Book value of .46 we see the stock is trading about 50% less than its assets. Put into context it doesn’t look too attractive:

Lets say there is 4 baht per share in assets, 74% of which is liabilities (see debt to equity), that leaves us with only 1.08 baht of assets per share after paying back the debts, the stock is currently trading at 1.84 baht???? Then we look at their current returns and they made a loss and have been having negative growth for the past 3 years.

Out of all of the stocks that were mentioned the only buy that I would have out of them is MK. Trading at 2.44, PER of about 5, P/BV .47 or assets of 5.19 baht per share, only 36% of this is debt. They haven’t been too consistent with their growth of profits but they have been steady in increasing their customer and asset base.

2 other important factors we should consider buying stocks is, like samran says management, if you don’t trust them let alone know them why give them your money. The other is the industry, some industries come and go, if you go with growth industries that you can pretty much guarantee will be around for the next 10-20 years then you are a step ahead.

[Abrak]

Take one of the recommended stocks on this thread SINGER, going by Price to Book value of .46 we see the stock is trading about 50% less than its assets. Put into context it doesn’t look too attractive:

Lets say there is 4 baht per share in assets, 74% of which is liabilities (see debt to equity), that leaves us with only 1.08 baht of assets per share after paying back the debts, the stock is currently trading at 1.84 baht???? Then we look at their current returns and they made a loss and have been having negative growth for the past 3 years.

Book Value (BV) is Assets NET of Liabilities!!

[baksidaa]

you're right, too much to drink

I still maintain though if you are looking at book value per share alone (equity/no. of shares) we need to take into account the amount of debt as extremly high debt will see a stock price fall and may be perceived as a good buy due to its P/BV.

[No beleeeeve!]

If you want to invest in Asian stocks why not look to China? Or even South Korea? Vietnam? There are plenty of good plays still in China. Some good ones currently and coming up in Vietnam (although a correction downward is predicted for this year).

I have not read or heard anywhere that the Thai market is stable or profitable enough especially compared to China. I posted previously about what is going on in Vietnam and how to get some play there as well.

BTW, I own stocks in companies who do business in China and Vietnam and they're doing well as have the stocks I shorted. It's not that you can't make money in the SET but when given choices there are many better options both short and long.

I'm sure there are some guys here who did well with Thai stocks. Any success stories guys???