Lalin sure of reaching revenue target, budgets Bt900m for land purchases

The company also plans to launch eight or 10 new residential projects worth Bt4 billion this year to boost its total revenue target to Bt2.62 billion, up 12 per cent from last year, the company’s chief executive Chaiyan Chakarakul said at press conference yesterday.
The company’s investment budget will come from initial cash flow, as it also plans to issue a debenture worth Bt800 million in the second half of this year to pay back its existing debenture that will expire this year, he said.
Chaiyan said that he was confident Lalin Property would achieve its revenue target as it now had a Bt500 million backlog of residential properties that were ready to be transferred to customers this year.
He said that the company was targeting total presales worth Bt3.12 billion this year from its existing residential projects and new residential projects that would be launched this year, after notching Bt2.8 billion in presales last year.
It had targeted Bt3.2 billion in presales last year but the economy slowed down.
Chaiyan said that in the first nine months of 2014 Lalin Property recorded total revenue of Bt1.84 billion and a net profit Bt346.7 million.
“We believe that the property market this year will recover after the market dropped last year, with total market growth of 12 per cent compare to last year thanks to the country’s economy showing signs of growth of between 3.5 per cent and 4.5 per cent,” he said.
However, he is concerned about commercial banks being stingy with mortgage approvals after the company recorded a mortgage-rejection rate last year that was 25 per cent higher than 2013’s rejection rate of 15 per cent.
Lalin had tried to solve this problem by launching ready-to-move residences for customers where they would immediately know if a loan had been approved. If it were approved they would get the home at the same time.
Chaiyan said that most rejections were for customers who were pre-approved for loans by had to wait between a year and 18 months before the home was constructed and in that time their debt increased to an unsatisfactory level for banks.