The Bangkok-based company, controlled by builder Ch Karnchang, will sell 2.86 billion shares, or 24 percent of its enlarged capital, to overseas and domestic investors in the middle of February, managing director Sombat Kitjalaksana said Monday in Bangkok. Sombat refused to say how much the company wanted to raise in the initial public offering.

Bangkok Metro owns the right to operate the 20-kilometer underground railway in Bangkok for 25 years. The company borrowed 11.2 billion baht (HK$2.2 billion) from Krung Thai Bank, TMB Bank and two other local lenders in December 2001 to buy trains and a computer control system for the network. Bangkok Metro hired Kim Eng Securities Thailand and CLSA to advise on the share sale.

Of the stock to be offered, 1.32 billion will be new shares and 1.54 billion will be existing stocks owned by current shareholders, said Sombat. About 40 percent will be offered to overseas investors, he said.

The subway operator's executives will meet with investors in Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo and London to market the shares, said Montree Sornpaisarn, chief executive of Kim Eng Securities Thailand.

Bangkok Metro had a cumulative loss of about two billion baht as of September 30, 2005, finance director Pornpimol Chirtchoochai told the conference. The company expects to start posting profit in 2008 and be able to pay a dividend in 2012, said Pornpimol.

BLOOMBERG