Ticon to sell factories, warehouses to REIT for Bt1.4 bn

He said the amount of the transaction was smaller than planned earlier this year because the company’s capital expenditure was lower from not having to acquire more land.
The sale to TREIT will take place before the end of the year.
Meanwhile, the company announced that its financial performance in the first half was on target. Net profit was Bt248 million, an increase of 931 per cent from the first six months of last year.
Virapan said the company recorded revenue of Bt756 million in the first half of the year. Most of the revenue came from factory and warehouse rental fees, totalling Bt515 million, and gains on sales of investment units in property funds at Bt89 million.
The sales of investments in property funds resulted in additional gains of Bt259 million.
The company says it has continually developed its factory and warehouse space to attract foreign direct investment. A total of 42 new customers have rented its factories and warehouses in the first half, resulting in a total of 325 customers of Ticon and its subsidiary TPARK.
More than 90 per cent of its clients are international companies, mostly Japanese, though there has been an increasing proportion of Chinese customers. Most of its clients are in the automotive, electronics, logistics and modern-trade sectors, he said.
The company expects the second half of 2016 to see continuous growth of its factory and warehouse rental business, especially in the Bang Na-Trat, Bang Phli and Wang Noi areas, thanks to economic recovery, the accelerated approval process of the Board of Investment, and speeding up of government expenditure on infrastructure projects. These factors are attracting |investment from abroad and should contribute to the increasing demand for rental factories and warehouses during the rest of the year, Virapan said.
He added that Ticon was ready to cope with the increasing demand. The company continues to develop its factories and warehouses in every region of the country to meet a total additional space target of 280,000 square metres or 10 per cent by the end of 2016.
Ticon is considering local partnerships in both northern and southern Vietnam, planned for finalisation by the end of the year. The company is also conducting feasibility studies on investment in Cambodia.
Meanwhile in Indonesia, SLP, a joint venture of Ticon, SSIA and Mitsui, is building the second phase of 51,000sqm of a project to be completed by the end of this year. The total project will cover 146,000sqm.
In addition, the company plans to acquire more land in many different areas to serve customers in various sectors in Indonesia.
Ticon Group now has 51 factory and warehouse projects with 797 units, with total space under management of 2.5 million square metres.