Ananda issuing high-interest bonds

“We are issuing debentures with a high interest rate to support our business expansion in the second half of this year after we successfully issued debentures worth Bt2 billion with an interest rate of 4.8 per cent in the second quarter,” said chief financial officer Muntana Aue-Kitkarjorn. 

She made the remarks after the company’s press conference on its launch of four new condominium projects this quarter. 

After issuing the hybrid debentures this month, the company’s interest costs will increase from 5.5 per cent to 5.6 per cent, but that is still lower than the market average, she said.

Currently, the company has a debt-to-equity ratio of about 0.74:1. 

Meanwhile, the company has maintained its revenue target at Bt11.4 billion for this year after recording revenue of Bt1.39 billion and net profit of Bt73.56 million in the first quarter.

Ananda president and chief executive officer Chanond Ruangkritya told yesterday’s news conference that the company had a backlog of homes already sold and awaiting transfer to customers worth Bt34.3 billion as of June. “Between Bt7 billion and Bt8 billion of the backlog will be booked as revenue by the end of this year. This will take our revenue to our early target,” he said. 

He said the company had also maintained its full-year presale target of Bt25.58 billion after recording presales worth Bt12.47 billion in the first half. It has already sold 72 per cent of its existing projects’ total value, and the seven new condo projects will account for the rest of the presales. 

Four of the seven new projects – Bt11.09 billion worth – were launched yesterday, and the rest worth Bt9.23 billion will be launched in the final quarter of the year.

Two of four condominium projects launched yesterday are Q Chidlom and Ideo O2 Bangna, developed by a joint venture between Ananda Development and Mitsui Fudosan. The other two, Ideo Sukhumvit 115 and Q Thirty-One, are being developed by Ananda alone.

Two of the three projects worth Bt9.23 billion that will launch in the fourth quarter will be developed by the joint venture with Mitsui Fudosan, and Ananda will develop the third one, Chanond said.

“Although the country’s economy will grow only slightly this year, we have confidence in the demand to buy condominiums located close to the mass-transit system, especially near the Green Line from Mo Chit to Samut Prakan province. As a result, our new projects will be near this line,” he said.

Ananda’s potential customers have reported a mortgage-rejection rate of 14 per cent, lower than the market average of 25-30 per cent, he said.