• 
• 

Published on September 14, 2007

Noble is ranked among the country's top 10 property businesses, and he has a happy young family.

Thongchai had a younger start than most. He began his business life in 1990, when he was only 22.

"I was still studying at Chulalongkorn University for a bachelor's degree in commerce and accountancy when I started working with my uncle, Kitti Thanakitamnuay, who is now Noble's chairman. It all started when a friend and I created computer software for a property developer, to display at the Chulalongkorn Fair in 1989," he recalls.

Kitti established Noble Development in 1990 and assigned Thongchai to work out how to develop a block of land on Bang Na-Trat Road, Km 12. Thongchai promptly got together with a friend who was studying architecture to find a way of developing the land as a residential project.

At first, he thought of building town houses, like other property firms in the same location. But, after studying the project for three months, the prospect was less than challenging.

"I asked myself how to create a different residential project for the modern lifestyle, because Noble was a new property firm in the market. If I wanted to succeed in a market that had many property firms, I had to have a project that was different from the others," he says.

Finally, he decided to develop what was called Noble Park as a condominium project under a closeness-to-nature concept, with the car park separated from the building.

Two months after launching the project, its 1,200 condo units were sold out, generating sales worth Bt1.6 billion for the new company.

"I felt fully confident, and believed that although I hadn't graduated as an architect or an engineer, I could still be a land developer because I learnt how to create products to meet the demands of home-buyers and my projects were different from those of other property firms," he says, adding that when he started, he used his education as an accountant to assess a project's feasibility and his hobbies, computer systems and architecture, also helped.

With the initial success of its first residential project on Bang Na-Trat Road, Noble created more residential projects, both high-rise condominiums and low-rise detached housing, semi-detached homes and town houses.

Then came the financial crisis in 1997, and like other property firms, Noble plunged into a period of great difficulty. Overnight, its debts leapt from Bt2 billion to Bt3 billion and creditors were demanding immediate repayment, as well as cutting credit lines for current projects.

Thongchai didn't know what to do.

"We met with our staff of 130 people and told them that the company had enough money to pay their salaries for only eight months. We asked them if they wanted their money right away, or whether they would prefer to keep working in the hope of finding some way to survive. The staff said they wanted to fight for some way to survive the crisis, so we decided to fight," he says.

Thongchai paused to analyse the situation. He discovered that when the US faced a similar crisis in 1987, the government quickly set up a state agency to buy non-performing loans (NPLs) from banks. That, Thongchai realised, would be the next step for the government after it received assistance from the International Monetary Fund.

He asked himself: who will have enough money to buy NPLs worth up to Bt800 billion from the banks? Foreign investors, was the obvious answer. What's more, he figured that bidders for NPLs would want some data on the assets for which they were bidding, from the Financial Sector Restructuring Authority (FRA).

Thongchai decided to spend the remaining Bt10 million of Noble's money in his bid to survive. He applied to the FRA to become a bidder for NPLs. As such, he had access to data on assets for sale.

He says he analysed the FRA's database of NPL assets to find a foreign partner among those interested in bidding for NPL assets in Thailand. As a result, Noble sent more than 300 letters by Internet to foreign investors around the world. None of them responded.

Then a friend of Thongchai's told him that the global financial firm and investment banker Lehman Brothers was not only an adviser to the FRA, but had a strong interest in bidding for NPL assets.

Thongchai says he immediately began to work with Lehman Brothers, and spent Noble's cash to join in bidding with Lehman, until it eventually offered to become a shareholder of Noble.

With a new strategic partner, Thongchai and Kitti began to negotiate with banks to reduce Noble's debts through sales of assets.

Three years after the financial crisis, Noble was able to launch a new residential project and returned to the business of property development.

Since gathering revenue of less than Bt1 billion from its first new project in 2000, Noble has made sales amounting to Bt10 billion. After being ranked a distant 30th before the financial crisis, the firm gained a business ranking among the top 10 property firms this year.

Noble Development recorded sales of Bt2.15 billion and a net profit of Bt301 million last year, and expects to reach Bt2.5 billion this year after generating revenue of Bt695.32 million and a net profit of Bt49.06 million in the first half.

Thongchai says he has learnt from the economic crisis that he has to manage risks and maintain a concern about the country's economy and the global economy before making decisions to expand the company's investments.

"Our business strategy now is how to mix and match low- and high-rise residential projects to serve the changing demands of customers," he says.

At present, Noble is building both low- and high-rise residential projects and is also planning to boost rental fees from its retail businesses and serviced apartments. It expects income from rental fees to reach 25 per cent of total revenue within five years.

Thongchai looks back on the past 17 years and says he has learned what has to be done in a crisis. He says his business would never have survived had he not endured and fought like Phra Mahachanok, believed to be one of the 10 lives of Lord Buddha before his enlightenment. Phra Mahachanok gained his wisdom through tolerance. His story was retold in one of His Majesty the King's books, in 1998.

Now, Thongchai is able to enjoy both his business life and his family life. He and his wife have one daughter and are expecting a son within three months.

"My dream, 17 years ago, was working with the best firm and having a good family. Now my dream has come true. My life is fulfilled, and so now I want to contribute to society for the rest of my life," he says.

Somluck Srimalee

 The Nation