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Siam piwat looks for properties

The Nation February 24, 2009 Five hotel, office, retail projects in Bangkok targeted Siam Piwat, operator of Siam Discovery and Siam Centre shopping malls, is hunting for promising commercial properties during the current economic hard times, with its sights set on five hotel, office and retail projects in Bangkok. "At any time of an economic crisis, we see them as opportunities for new investments. We can take this opportunity to save 20-30 per cent on our construction costs on average compared to last year. "We will benefit from dealing with more quality contractors, who will give more time to our development work at this time," CEO Chadatip Chutrakul said yesterday. The company is conducting five feasibility studies for existing hotels and office complexes and land for redevelopment. "As part of our expansion plan, we are looking to acquire high-potential office buildings in Bangkok so that we can run them better than the existing owners. We are also looking for good sites in Bangkok so that we can develop them into neighbourhood malls or open space retail complexes in town," she said. The areas earmarked for improvement will range from five to about 70 rai. Each project will need more than Bt100 million, with about 35 per cent of the funds coming from bank loans and 65 per cent from the company's internal resources. The company has a good lead time to develop property projects in this period of difficulty so it will have some of the freshest products available in the market when the economy rebounds, she said. "We will take all of this year to conduct feasibility studies of any new property development projects, together with our investment partner - MBK - as part of our expansion plan set for the next seven years," she said. Siam Piwat, together with MBK, the operator of MBK Centre shopping mall, has recently bought a majority stake in Seri Centre shopping mall on Srinakarin Road, following long studies and a discussion period of about eight months, she said. "We have made a business diversification based on our strong team, who are rich in experience and capabilities," she said. Siam Piwat early this year set up a wholly-owned subsidiary Siam Professional Management to provide building development services, including security and operating system management, to individual developers. The new unit will also take charge of the development of any building complex procured by Siam Piwat in the future. Under its diversification strategy, Siam Piwat has aligned itself with The Mall Group in two subsidiaries - Siam Paragon Development and Siam Paragon Retail - which manage Siam Paragon shopping complex and Siam Paragon department store respectively. Siam Piwat also operates the Delice food-for-fun food court and the Supremo marketing service agency.

 

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