NC Housing awaits legal changes in Myanmar

NC Housing is looking into expanding its investment in Asean countries, focusing on Myanmar, which promises great opportunity for development of both residential projects and commercial buildings.
Vice president Somnuek Tantha-thoedthum said the company joined with Siam Commercial Bank on a trip to explore business opportunities in Myanmar early this month. It found there was strong demand in the hospitality business.
However, the company has to take time to study the investment laws in Myanmar, which does not grant land-ownership rights to foreign investors. Private foreign investors currently can only acquire long-lease contracts for 25 years for building projects.
The government is in the process of revising its investment law to extend the lease maximum to 50 years, but it could take some time for the amendment to go into effect.
Meanwhile, the company is also interested in investing in other countries in Asean such as Vietnam, Laos and Indonesia, but in those markets too it is studying the feasibility. It may make a decision within the next two or three years, Somnuek said.
Somnuek added that if the |company expanded into Asean, it would be through joint ventures with local investors in those countries.
“Our friends from Singapore and Malaysia are also interested in expanding into Thailand, because they believe Thailand will be an Asean centre,” he said.
In the meantime, NC Housing has continued to expand its investment in Thailand, planning to launch two new low-rise projects, both detached houses and townhouses, worth Bt2 billion in the final quarter of this year. Yesterday, it launched NC Royal Pinklao worth Bt800 million. This is part of its strategy to achieve revenue of Bt1.7 billion this year, he said.
NC Housing reported revenue of Bt633.79 million and net profit of Bt24.26 million in the first half.