Chinese investors buying up many factories, land on sales as NPLs
The Bangkok Commercial Asset Management (BAM) said on Thursday that many Chinese investors have joined hands with Thai partners to buy plots of land and factories of failed businesses from the debt management agency.
Bundit Anantamongkol, president and CEO of BAM, said the Chinese investors bought land, industrial factories and warehouses put on sale by the BAM this year and most purchases were made in Rayong.
Bundit did not reveal details of the purchases by Chinese investors.
He said the Chinese investors came in to buy a lot of property because the prices have dropped a lot and because they planned to expand their businesses in Thailand in the near future.
Bundit said businesses continued to sell their non-performing loans to BAM. He expected more non-performing assets (NPAs) valued at not more than 3 million baht each to be sold to BAM for resale in the second half of this year.
Bundit said the BAM would also launch a special campaign in the second half to mark its 25th anniversary and almost 3,000 NPAs worth some 5 billion baht would be put on sale.
BAM is a public company in Thailand that specialises in managing distressed assets [investor.bam.co.th]. Established in 1998, it's under the ownership of Financial Institutions Development Fund (FIDF).
BAM primarily helps financial institutions by taking over bad debts and unwanted properties, and then works to recover their value. BAM also manages and sells real estate properties, including houses, land, and condos.
Bundit said he expected commercial banks and asset management corporations to sell more of their NPAs to BAM in the second half because they were required to meet the regulations of the Bank of Thailand to unload NPAs that have not performed for 12 years.
Bundit added that BAM aimed to sell 7 billion to 8 billion baht worth of NPAs this year.
Currently, BAM manages 24,378 assets with a combined value of 72.958 billion baht, he added.
