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TCC Land Group earmarks Bt50 bn for 2016 investment

TCC Land Group earmarks Bt50 bn for 2016 investment

TCC Land Group, a property arm of beverage tycoon Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi's empire, has set aside an investment budget of more than Bt50 billion for next year's business by listed and non-listed companies in the group.

"After having restructured our property group, separating it into three businesses – hotels, retail and offices – this year, via three property funds worth Bt80 billion in total, we have started to expand this year’s investment to Bt15 billion to renovate existing projects, with the rest of the investment budget to be spent from 2016 to 2019," TCC Land chief executive officer Sommapat Trisorat said early this week.

TCC Land is the non-listed property arm of TCC Land Group, which holds 100-per-cent stakes in its two subsidiaries: TCC Land Asset World Leisure, which develops and manages hotel business, and TCC Land Asset World Estate, which develops and manages the group’s retail business.

Meanwhile, Univentures is the group’s listed property unit, which holds major stakes in two property companies: Golden Land Property Development, which is also listed on the stock market, and non-listed Grand Unity Development.

Napat Charoenkul, managing director,

retail business, at TCC Land Asset World Estate, who oversees six retail property brands – Asiatique, Gateway, Central Point @ Siam, OP Place, Pantip and Boxspace – said the brands now had a combined retail space of 150,000 square metres.

The retail business unit has set aside about Bt20 billion to expand its retail space to 220,000 square metres by 2019, with the funds coming from its cash reserve, he said.

It plans to develop three new Asiatiques between 2016 and 2019. The one in Chiang Mai will use the Asiatique brand, while the other two projects, in Hua Hin and Pattaya, will be branded as Asiatique Prime properties.

Total investment in the three projects’ retail space will be Bt2.2 billion, with another Bt11 billion earmarked to develop hotels near the three new Asiatiques.

Asiatique Charoen Krung

Next year, the company plans to invest Bt1.2 billion to develop the second phase of the Asiatique Charoen Krung and between Bt1 billion and Bt4 billion to develop a four-star hotel under the Marriott brand nearby.

"Our investment in the hotel at the Asiatique Charoen Krung will depend on the number of rooms, between 200 and 800, and the design concept. The cost will be about Bt5 million per room," said Napat.

The company has also budgeted Bt460 million to renovate its three Pantip branches – at Pratunam, Ngam Wong Wan and Bang Kapi – between now and 2017.

Heavy competition from other shopping centres has reduced the number of tenants at the Pratunam branch, so Bt400 million of the renovation budget will be spent there and the remaining Bt60 million divided between the other two branches.

A total of Bt1 billion will be spent to develop two Boxspace projects. The one at Ratchayothin will open in the current quarter, and the other at Bang Na next year.

The managing director said the aggressive investment budget should increase revenue from its six retail brands from the Bt920 million expected this year, to Bt3 billion in 2019.

Currently, TCC Land Group earns 40 per cent of its revenue from its hotels, 30 per cent from office buildings, and 30 per cent from its retail properties. The group’s revenue averages Bt10 billion a year.

For the hospitality business, meanwhile, the group plans to renovate its existing hotel and is interested in expanding investment further, both domestically and overseas.

"We cannot say how much we will invest ourselves or via taking over hospitality business in the next year, but we still intend to expand our business in this sector after seeing strong tourism demand, from both domestic and overseas sources," said a TCC Land Group source.

Meanwhile, Golden Land Property Development president Thanapol Sirithanachai said earlier that his company would invest Bt8 billion to Bt10 billion a year from 2015 through to the end of 2019. This should enable the company to achieve revenue of Bt30 billion in 2019, he said.

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