BKI to invest Bt1.5 bn on commercial bank, energy stocks
Bangkok Insurance Pcl (BKI) aims to invest Bt1.5 billion in commercial bank and energy shares next year as these would benefit from the economic recovery, its chairman said.
Chai Sophonpanich expects companies listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand to pay low dividends next year as they had used retained earnings to pay dividends this year.
He said bank shares is an interesting choice for investment next year because these would benefit from the economic recovery as banks have already set up high reserves for doubtful debts.
“However, we have to monitor whether banks will be able to pay dividends or not because the company hasn’t received interim dividends from Bangkok Bank and Bangkok Life Assurance totalling Bt70 million,” Chai said.
He said BKI has an investment portfolio worth Bt41 billion, with return on investment of 4.4 per cent, higher than last year's 3.6 per cent.
“We expect to gain profit of over Bt1 billion this year from investments as our profit in the past nine months was Bt900 million,” he added.
Meanwhile, BKI chief executive officer and director Apisit Anantanatarat expected the company’s aircraft insurance premiums to drop by 15-20 per cent next year after the firm gave out some premiums to airlines which were affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The company provides insurance services for three airlines – Thai Airways International, AirAsia and Bangkok Airways,” he said.
He added that BKI would focus on providing insurance services for large projects next year because many large government projects were postponed this year.
