ThaiBev calls for trading halt after IPO media report, SGX query

THAI Beverage Public Co (ThaiBev) requested for a trading halt at 1.19pm on Friday, after a Bloomberg report earlier in the day stated that the food and beverage giant is considering a public listing of its brewery business on the Singapore Exchange (SGX).

Citing sources, Bloomberg wrote that ThaiBev is speaking with potential advisers about the listing and may seek to value the unit at as much as US$10 billion.

Meanwhile, ThaiBev was also queried by SGX on "unusual volume movements" in its shares on Friday morning. Its stock, which traded cum-dividend, had risen S$0.04 or 4.6 per cent to S$0.905 by the midday break.

Some 25.3 million shares changed hands before the trading halt, making it the second most heavily traded counter by volume on the Singapore bourse.

It is also a surge from the counter's trading volumes of 15.5 million shares on Thursday and 10.9 million on Wednesday.

The ThaiBev group along with two of its units - Fraser and Neave (F&N) and Frasers Property - are listed on the SGX mainboard.