WHA plans to focus more on renewable energy, especially solar rooftop and waste-to-energy business. (Bangkok Post file photo)
The country’s leading warehouse developer plans to invest more than 32 billion baht over the next five years expanding its business at home and across Southeast Asia.
WHA Corp, the market leader in building bespoke warehouses for lease, already has invested in Indonesia and aims to tap markets in Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia, newly-appointed chief executive Jareeporn Jarukornsakul told Reuters.
“We plan to invest about 6.5 billion baht a year,” she said, adding WHA aimed to become the one-stop service provider as a fully-integrated industrial-estate and logistic-facilities developer.
WHA is restructuring after an acquisition of industrial land developer Hemaraj Land and Development Plc was completed earlier this year, while shares in Hemaraj will be delisted from the Thai bourse in February, Ms Jareeporn said.
Jareeporn Jarukornsakul, CEO of WHA Corp Plc. (Bangkok Post file photo)
The company will focus on four core businesses, including warehouse and distribution centres, industrial land development, utility and digital data centre services, she said.
WHA also plans to spin off its utility and energy business and sell about 25-30% of the shares in an initial public offering in the second half of 2016, Ms Jareeporn said.
The company will focus more on renewable energy, especially solar rooftop and waste-to-energy business. WHA has a combined capacity of 2 million square metres of roof area which can generate up to 200 megawatts of electricity per annum, she said.
WHA, valued on the stock market at US$1.23 billion, targets revenue of 18.7 billion baht by 2019, up from more than 10 billion baht estimated this year, mainly from asset sales to real estate investment trusts and other business, Ms Jareeporn said.
The company’s gearing ratio rose to three times after it took loans out to finance the Hemaraj Land acquisition. The ratio is expected to drop to 1.9 times in the fourth quarter of 2015 and to 0.95 times in the fourth quarter of 2016.
Source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/news/755412/wha-to-invest-b32bn-on-5-year-expansion
