Hemaraj plans B6bn outlay

Hemaraj Land and Development Plc, the country’s largest industrial estate developer, plans to invest up to 6 billion baht to expand its businesses next year including developing at least one new property project and power plant.

Of the total expenditure, 4 billion has been approved by the company’s board of directors, including 1.5 billion to complete construction of the 660-megawatt Gheco-One power plant, a joint venture with Glow Energy.

About 800 million baht will be spent to develop more industrial land on the Eastern Seaboard, 300 million baht for constructing rented factories, and the rest for infrastructure and utility development in its industrial estates, including water supply.

Another 2 billion baht will cover property projects, as well as a 125-MW small joint-venture power plant, said Paopitaya Smutrakalin, Hemaraj’s director of planning and investor relations.

Of three planned property projects, two will be implemented next year, starting with a 35-unit townhouse estate by the Chao Phraya River on Rama III Road, which will take 18 months to complete.

The rest are projects on the Eastern Seaboard or Bangkok‘s Ramkhamhaeng Road that could be either condominiums or office buildings.

Hemaraj is looking to develop four to five power plants at its industrial estates. These will be joint ventures in which the company will hold a 25-30% stake, he said.

The company is also planning to double the capacity of its water supply to 360,000 cubic metres in the next three years at a cost of 450 million baht, he added.

The company has cash on hand of 3.6 billion baht to finance planned projects and will gain another 1.2 billion next year from the sale of remaining units of its luxury condominium The Park Chidlom.

As well, 6 billion baht of bonds were issued in October with maturities of up to nine years, half of which are to fund investments.

With five estates in Rayong province, Hemaraj has developed 30,000 rai of land with an additional 2,000 rai in the pipeline.

In October, the company spent 1.1 billion baht to acquire the remaining 75% share of SIL Industrial Land from Siam Cement Group, adding about 3,000 rai of industrial land to its portfolio.

In the first nine months, Hemaraj sold 721 rai and is on track to achieve its target of 1,000 for the whole year.

Mr Paopitaya said 1,400 rai represented the potential upside.

Shares of Hemaraj (HEMRAJ) closed yesterday on the SET at 1.79 baht, unchanged, in trade worth 13 million baht.

Source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/economics/207833/hemaraj-plans-b6bn-outlay