Thailand Business Roundup
Thai property developer Pace Development Corporation (PACE) recently announced plans to acquire 35 acres of land in Niseko sub-district in Japan from Bell Investments Ltd and Asension Trading Ltd for 529.05
million baht.
To fund this acquisition, PACE will increase its registered capital from 3.26 billion baht to 4.078 billion baht by issuing 816.35 newly-issued ordinary shares at the par value of one baht each.
The company plans to develop a luxury housing project of 37 units to serve demand from Thai people who want to own a private house in Japan.
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Swiss bank Credit Suisse launched a wealth management unit in Thailand in May, with a dedicated client relationship coverage team in place.
The set-up targets two key client segments, high-net-worth individuals with more than 65 million baht in assets under management, and ultra-high-net-worth individuals with the equivalent of 1.65 billion baht in assets under management or 10 billion baht in net wealth. These are mostly first or second-generation entrepreneurs with family-owned businesses.
In a press release the private banking market group head in Thailand, Christian Senn said the bank’s experienced client coverage team based in
Bangkok is in a strong position to support Thai investors in pursuing
global investment opportunities.
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Thailand’s leading renewable energy and oil refinery firm Bangchak
Petroleum Pcl (BCP) announced plans to acquire a local ethanol production plant with total investment of 800 million-1 billion baht and a daily production capacity of 150,000-300,000 litres.
The company stated it needed to boost its ethanol production capacity to serve the fast growth of gasohol in the market. Demand for ethanol is around
700,000 litres per day and is forecast to increase to one million litres by 2020.
BCP plans to use 400-500 million baht from its internal cash reserves and loans to fund the acquisition.
The company will spend around eight billion baht on improving the refinery’s
efficiency, two billion baht on an additional 60 gas stations and one billion baht on improving current gas stations.
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Thailand’s leading warehouse and industrial estate developer WHA Corporation Pcl announced plans to turn the assets of its subsidiary Hemaraj Land and Development Pcl (HEMRAJ) into a real estate investment trust (REIT) in the next quarter.
This will be valued at around six billion baht and WHA said will also sell more factories and warehouses, worth 4.19 billion baht, into the WHA Premium Growth Freehold & Leasehold REIT this November.
WHA aims to raise at least 11 billion baht this year to lower debt and financial costs after it took over HEMRAJ, the country’s biggest automotive industrial estate developer, last year.
