U City readies Bt12 bn outlay

Piyaporn told a press conference that under this investment budget, the company would outlay Bt7 billion to develop a 7-rai plot on Phayathai Road in a mixed-use project that will provide 400 hotel rooms, 20,000 square metres of office space and about 100 service residences. Construction is due to be completed in 2021. The company would also build an international school at Thana City Bangna worth Bt2 billion under a joint venture with International School from Hong Kong. 
In another project, the company has earmarked Bt3 billion for a development comprising food and beverage operations and a hotel on a site in Charoen Krung that is now the Chak 3 building, owned by the Treasury Department of the Finance Ministry. The project is still subject to negotiations over a contract renewal amid delays going back 12 years on a start to construction.
 “The delays stemmed from the project having been under a contract with Natural Park Plc before BTS Group Holdings Plc took over Natural Park Plc and then changed the company name to U City in 2015,” Piyaporn said. 
“We are continuing to negotiate with the Treasury Department to extend the contract. The conditions around the existing contract are subject to a legal process in the courts. As a result, we cannot to say when we will start to construction on the project.”
The company expects its total revenue will grow by up to 30 per cent in 2018 from the expected figure in 2017, said Piyaporn said, based on the new investment plan and the performance of its existing business, the Vienna House hotel chain in Europe, and the contribution from the hotels and other assets to be transferred from BTS Group Holdings Plc under the group’s restructuring plan. For the first nine months of this year, it reported total revenue of Bt2.78 billion and a net loss of Bt1.05 billion. The company expects total assets to reach Bt53 billion in 2018, from Bt41 billion this year.