BAM expects to recover more cash next year after Covid hits its debt collections this year
Bangkok Commercial Asset Management (BAM) believes it will be able to collect Bt15 billion and Bt16 billion in outstanding debts next year, chief of BAM’s investor relations Rathanon Fookiat said.
This year, the company was only able to collect between Bt12 billion and Bt13 billion in payments or 20 per cent less than initially targeted due to the fallout of Covid-19, he said.
In the next few days, the company will put six of its non-performing assets (NPAs) worth a total of Bt780 million on auction. The next auction will take place early next year, he said.
Rathanon added that BAM’s performance is starting to improve in the fourth quarter of this year, and it will realise revenue worth about Bt1.6 billion from its sale in the second and third quarters.
For now, he said, the company is prioritising renovating its NPAs for sale, which will account for 72 per cent of the total items up for auction.
The company’s cash collection recovered in the third quarter of this year, realising net profit worth Bt289 million. Its profits in the first nine months of the year came to Bt1.13 billion.
The asset management firm is satisfied with the current level of profits, he said.
He added that non-performing loans (NPLs) in the banking system will rise to 3.4 per cent of total loans, up from the 3.18 per cent or Bt70 billion estimated for this year.
He said the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic is a major cause for rising bad debts.
BAM is an asset management company, offering investments in the real-estate sector. It also puts properties up for auction and sale.
