First Private Bank (FPB) became the first Yangon-listed company to watch its shares fall immediately after listing.
The lender, which claims the oldest banking licence in Myanmar, became the fourth firm listed on the Yangon Stock Exchange on January 20. FPB’s 2.47 million shares started at a base price of K39,000 but dropped to K34,000 – the floor price for the day – after the first matching session.
Each of the other three listed firms, First Myanmar Investment (FMI), Myanmar Thilawa SEZ Holdings (MTSH) and Myanmar Citizens Bank (MCB), saw their shares hit the ceiling price on the first day of trading.
FPB’s poor first day may be a product of investor experience. The other three listed firms saw big jumps in share price during their first few days trading, only to face a slow slide lower during the following months. None of those firms have since come close to the highs of their first week’s trading on the exchange.
The K39,000 base price also made the FPB shares easily the most expensive buy out of the four firms. FMI’s shares closed at K14,000 on January 20, MCB’s at K9100 and MTSH shares at K4400.
MTSH performed a share split late last year – when it was trading above K40,000 – dividing each of its 3.89 million shares into 10 and the par value of shares by the same amount.
Myanmar Securities Exchange Centre, the securities firm that helped FPB with its listing and came up with the base price, said it had relied mainly on “comparison with similar companies” in determining the starting point for the shares.
In terms of earnings, FPB reported net profit of K6 billion for the 2015-16 financial year, compared to K5.3 billion for MCB. The two non-banks are far more profitable entities. FMI reported net profits of K6.2 billion for the first six months of the 2016-17 financial year, and MTSH over K10 billion for that period.
Source: The Myanmar Times
