Ratch mulls more ventures

“The company targets to achieve project investment in Myanmar, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines. According to the company’s market potential assessment and analysis, there are huge opportunities in coal-fired and hydropower projects in Myanmar, Indonesia and Vietnam while in the Philippines mergers and acquisitions are interesting,” CEO Pongdith Potchana said yesterday.

 Ratch will also explore diversified investment in new business lines of electricity generation and energy. 

Celebrating its 13th anniversary this year, it sees numerous opportunities in greenfield development and brownfield M&A. it also plans to diversify into the power value-chain business.    

The company has reviewed its strategy to cope with the changes and intensified competition in the domestic and international arenas and to ensure that it can continue growing and generating good returns for shareholders, stakeholders and society. 

The redefined strategy includes making full use of the potential of existing assets, looking for attractive greenfield projects in established markets such as Thailand, Laos and Australia, seeking partners to expand its generation portfolio in new markets such as Myanmar, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines, exploring higher-value businesses along the power value chain, and enhancing organisational readiness and capabilities to execute the company’s strategy to meet its goals.        

During the past 13 years, the company saw its capacity leap from 1.47 gigawatts to 6.30GW and its assets by 149 per cent from Bt37 billion to Bt92 billion as of June. It now operates 26 power stations and is developing six projects. 

Besides Thailand, Laos and Australia are the main sources of income and the company has continued to build its presence in those counties. In Australia, it is redeveloping its coal-fired Collinsvile power plant compound into the Collinsville Energy Park with solar PV and solar thermal farms.

There is also a development plan for a natural gas-fired power plant.