Italian-Thai Development Pcl, Thailand’s largest construction firm, said on Monday it expected to reach a conclusion in 2012 on how it would finance the Dawei deep sea port and infrastructure projects in Myanmar.
Loss-making Italian-Thai has no plan to raise funds via an equity issue, but it planed to convert some land into capital and also receive revenue from land sales in Dawei, President Premchai Karnasuta told reporters.
“We are discussing with financial institutions about financing and received a good response from foreign banks,” Premchai said, adding priorities included investing in infrastructure such as port, road and rail networks.
Financial institutions from Japan and China have showed interest in extending loans for rail construction, he said.
In late 2010, Italian-Thai signed an $8 billion contract for the deep-sea port and infrastructure project in Dawei in the Tanintharyi region of southern Myanmar.
The company has set up a unit, Dawei Development Co Ltd, to operate and construct the port and related infrastructure.
Italian-Thai also planned to conclude next year a plan to find partners for six projects, including power plants, oil and gas, petrochemical, fertilizer, steel and a port and it aimed to sell at least 50,000 rai (20,000 acres) of land at Dawei, he said.
PARTNERS SOUGHT
The coal-fired power plants are expected to need investment of $7 billion. It would need $3.5 billion for port and roads and another $2 billion for rail projects, he said, adding his firm was in talks with foreign partners to jointly invest in the power plant project.
In November, Italian-Thai signed an agreement with Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding Pcl to build coal-fired power plants with a combined capacity of 4,000 megawatts.
“We got Ratchaburi as a partner and we have three investors, two Japanese and one (South) Korean, who showed interest in the power plant project,” Premchai said.
It expected to find a partner for a steel smelting plant in Dawei in the first half of 2012, he said.
Italian-Thai also planned to sell a stake in Dawei Development and the Myanmar’s private sector was keen to buy a 25 percent of its unit, he said.
“ITD will hold not less than 51 percent in Dawei Development and we are open for both Thai and foreign investors,” he said.
Strong domestic building projects should help boost the company’s ongoing construction jobs, excluding Dawei, to reach 400 billion baht ($12.8 billion) in 2012, up from 170 billion baht now, Premchai said.
The company is expected to post a net loss of 1.7 billion baht for 2011 and a loss of 37 million for 2012, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Italian-Thai, valued at $497 million, posted a nine-month net loss of 1.4 billion baht versus a net profit of 274 million baht a year earlier.
Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/26/italianthai-idUSL3E7NQ1Q120111226