WHA targets record revenue growth with THB78.7 bn investment budget

Speaking at the company's first round annual press conference, titled "2024: WHA: Shape the Future for Sustainable Growth”, group CEO Jareeporn Jarukornsakul expressed confidence that the company's strong growth would continue this year.

Despite the current global economic slowdown and high interest rates, industrial estates and logistics industries in Thailand remain in high demand.

"This will be another year in which we [WHA] can expect to break our revenue records. I would say that the Southeast Asia region, particularly Thailand and Vietnam, are considered safe zones for investors to relocate their operations," she said.

She pointed out that while both countries have their own strengths in attracting investors, Thailand benefits more from its strong supply chain, good infrastructure, and development of green solutions.

"We expect total normalised revenue and share of profits in two digitis from the previous year, while still maintaining growth momentum. The company has allocated a budget of 8 billion baht to buy new land for the future industrial estate projects both in Thailand and Vietnam," she revealed.

With an investment budget of 78.7 billion baht for 2024-2028, she added that WHA Group intends to generate 100 billion baht in total revenue over the next five years, implying that the company will continue to grow at least 1.6 times per year from now.

With the company's commitment to continue business expansion, create new businesses through innovation and technology, increase emphasis on green and sustainability, and improve efficiency to become high-performance firms, Jareeporn said that 2024 would see significant improvements in its four major businesses: logistics, industrial estate, utilities and power, and digital.

In the logistics business, WHA intends to deliver new projects and contracts totalling 200,000 square metres, including 165,000 square metres in Thailand and 35,000 square metres in Vietnam. Total assets under ownership and management are expected to reach 3.145 million square metres. In addition, WHA Logistics intends to sell leasehold rights totalling approximately 213,000 square metres to WHART and WHAIR for approximately 5.29 billion baht.

Meanwhile, WHA Group plans to provide EV fleet services, charging stations, and digital applications for EV fleet and battery management. In 2023, the company signed lease contracts with customers for 25 EVs, with plans to lease out an additional 1,000 units in 2024.

In the industrial estate business, the company has set a land sales target of 2,275 rai (equivalent to 899.5 acres) in Thailand and Vietnam. This exceeds the target set in 2023 of 1,750 rai (around 691.9 acres). Notably, in 2023, the company exceeded its land sales target by 58%, selling a total of 2,767 rai (approximately 1,094 acres).

As for utilities and power business, WHA aims to sell a total of 178 million cubic metres for both water supply and wastewater management, with 142 million cubic metres in Thailand and 36 million cubic metres in Vietnam. The target figure represents a growth rate of more than 14%, driven by the expansion of all types of water services in new WHA industrial estates and elsewhere, as well as the ongoing increase in demand for water from customers in Vietnam.

"Looking forward, the company will continue to expand the value-added water product business to reach a target of 10 million cubic metres, as well as develop the Smart Water Platform and explore new business opportunities such as environmental solutions and other industrial utilities services," Jareeporn said.

She added that WHA will continue to focus on smart and innovative solutions such as EV-charging stations, a peer-to-peer energy trading platform, International Renewable Energy Certificate trading, and new S-curve businesses such as Battery Energy Storage Systems and Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage.

Additionally, as part of its commitment to the "Mission To The Sun" strategic digitisation plan, she said that WHA Group continues to strengthen its business ecosystem by enhancing every aspect of group operations, from digital transformation projects to new and value-added products, all in an effort to transform the organisation into a technology company and support the growth of its digital business.

She cited the Super Driver application as an example, stating that the company had developed the app to provide commercial EV customers with fully integrated services, such as fleet management, route optimisation, and EV roaming as part of its Green Logistics project.

"Looking ahead to 2024, we are committed to developing and enhancing our capabilities across all areas for strong growth in our four business hubs together with building capacities to address new challenges and working towards the next future goals including achieve its goal of 100% circularity by 2050," she said.

WHA's strategic growth plan and confidence in success came as the company reported a strong performance in 2023, setting a new record high by closing land sales contracts totalling 2,767 rai (approximately 1,094 acres) and lease agreements for a factory and warehouse totalling 242,000 square metres.

Even though its financial statement for 2023 is still being finalised, the company expects total normalised revenue and share of profits of 17.2 billion baht in 2023, up 11% over the previous year, while maintaining an earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation margin of more than 40%.