AIRA Capital inks MoU for office-building joint venture

Under the deal, AIRA Capital will establish a wholly owned subsidiary called AIRA Property with registered capital of Bt200 million. It is expected to be in place by next month.
Once established, AIRA Property Co will form the joint venture with Sena and Sangah for the construction of office buildings. AIRA Property will hold a 60-per-cent stake in the joint-venture company, whose name will be announced soon.
Thailand is seen as a good location for regional headquarters, so this is a good time to enter the office market, Nalinee Ngamsettamas, chief executive director of AIRA Capital, said yesterday at the signing ceremony for the memorandum of understanding to set up the joint venture.
“The low rental charges for offices in this country are also an advantage over neighbouring countries, especially Singapore,” she added.
AIRA Capital has earmarked more than Bt2 billion for its first office-building project under the new joint venture company.
The building will have more than 2,000 square metres of office space, and the project is expected to be finalised this year. The companies want to generate the recurring incomes by renting out offices, she explained.
Under the joint venture, the partners plan to put more than Bt5 billion into the pipeline, expecting to establish at least five buildings over the next three to five years. They plan to put the projects into a real estate investment trust (REIT) in the future.
Nalinee said the priority of the company was to build facilities to serve the demand for offices over the next three years. The partners are not talking about developing condominiums yet, but may do so in the future depending on demand.
Meanwhile, AIRA & AIFUL, a previously established joint-venture company, expects to open its first financial service centre in September and to have 15 branches in Bangkok before the end of this year. It now has about 70 employees and is expects to have a workforce of more than 1,500 by 2019.
The targeted growth of AIRA Capital is 10 per cent this year, she added.