Gulf takes capital hike route to fund investment plans

The company expects revenue next year to jump over 50 per cent year on year.

Sarath Ratanavadi, Gulf's chief executive officer, said during the shareholders meeting that the company expected to raise around Bt30 billion from the capital increase, adding that the company has a lot of projects waiting for investment.

"We will invest in power plant construction and renewable energy projects both in Thailand and overseas, such as the Hin Kong 1,400-megawatt power plant and Burapa Power 540MW power plant, as well as mergers and acquisitions of foreign power plants in Europe, US and Britain," he said.

For short-term investment, he said the company had a plan to invest or acquire power plants that already supplied electricity for commerce because it would generate returns quickly.

"So far, the company has invested in a German wind power plant with a 50 per cent stake, expecting to recognise the return on investment of Bt1.2 billion to Bt1.5 billion yearly," he said, adding that the company's construction of large power plants would be completed in 2022.

He added that although the increase in capital would cause a decline in earnings per share (EPS), the company's EPS would grow steadily from the recognition of revenue and profit from various projects.

"We expect the company's production capacity to increase to 10,000MW by 2022," he added.

Meanwhile, Yupapin Wangviwat, Gulf executive director and chief financial officer, said that after increasing capital, the company's debt-to-equity would fall to between 1.7 and 1.8 times.

"The company's price to earnings that was recently high would fall in line with the increasing profit," she said

"We expect profit next year to jump by over 50 per cent from this year's 15 per cent because the company would recognise revenue from the German wind power plant and the 2,500MW GSRC power plant, while large power plants would gradually open within 2022-25."