CLSA and Thai broker Asia Plus ink agreement

CLSA Asia-Pacific has signed a deal to cooperate with Thai broker Asia Plus Securities on equity capital market and advisory transactions in Thailand.

The agreement covers CLSA’s investment banking services in Thailand only, which include primary and secondary equity offerings and M&A advisory. It excludes research, which will not be affected by the arrangement.

Under the terms of the deal, CLSA and Asia Plus are “committed to showing each other opportunities on a preferred basis,” said Richard Taylor, CLSA’s head of investment banking, in an email. “If either party does not want to take it up then the other party can proceed without restrictions.”

The agreement will combine Asia Plus’s strong domestic relationships and retail distribution with CLSA’s global franchise, and could help CLSA compete against bulge-bracket firms such as Bank of America Merrill Lynch, which has a partnership with local firm Phatra Securities.

“The cooperation agreement with Asia Plus Securities will help us target cross-border opportunities where we can combine Asia Plus’s strong domestic presence with CLSA’s international reach,” said CLSA’s Taylor in a release.

“With our solid network of domestic corporate clients, we see strong prospects in the areas of cross-border M&A and ECM activities. Our collaboration with CLSA will allow us to combine strengths to better service our clients,” added Kongkiat Opaswongkarn, CEO of Asia Plus, in the release.

Asia Plus provides a range of services, ranging from securities brokerage, investment banking, asset and wealth management, and equity research. It is active in equity fundraising for small-cap companies and acted as a financial adviser for two IPOs in 2011, which raised a total of $65 million.

The Thai equities market has mostly been quiet, but there have been a few big outbound M&A deals, such as PTTEP’s $1.9 billion bid for Cove Energy. The oil and gas exploration arm of PTT is expected to tap the market with a large equity offering during the fourth quarter of this year.

Asia Plus ended a similar agreement with Royal Bank of Scotland in March this year as the British bank scaled back its cash equities and M&A advisory business.