Siamese Asset earmarks Bt4.8 bn for 4 projects

Siamese Ratchakru is a condominium project on Phaholyothin Road worth Bt1.5 billion, while a townhouse project worth Bt2 billion called Siamese Blossom will be on Ram Indra Road. The other two are condominium projects Siamese Suriwong and Siamese @ Sirikij National Convention Centre worth a combined Bt3.7 billion.

"We have spent Bt1.3 billion to buy four pieces of undeveloped land from our cash flow, while another Bt2.5 billion of our investment budget will come from bank loans," managing director Kajohn Sae-Ang said.

The company has also budgeted Bt400 million to buy two more plots of land on Sukhumvit Sois 12 and 49 for development next year. This is part of its business strategy to develop residential projects worth a total of Bt10 billion within five years after its first condominium, the Bt900 million Siamese Gioia, launched two years ago.

The company also plans to invest Bt2 billion to develop a sports park at Ram Indra near its Siamese Blossom townhouse project this year.

Kajohn said Siamese Asset, an affiliate of Ritta Group, expanded into property development after recognising that this would be more profitable than the contracting business.

"Our first project, Siamese Gioia, has shown net profit of at least 10 per cent of total project value, while the contractor business has net profit between 5 and 7 per cent," he said.

The company will start booking revenue of Bt900 million from Siamese Gioia this year, driving its total revenue to Bt1 billion, with the remaining Bt100 million from down payments on the four new projects.

The first project will open for bookings this weekend. Siamese Ratchakru has 340 units starting at Bt89,500 per square metre, or about Bt3 million per unit. The project has passed its environment impact assessment and acquired a construction permit.

It will start construction this month and will be complete by 2014. The other three projects will launch in the second half of this year.