Siam nuwat to sell 30% stake to Singapore property company

It will also expand its investments in new projects to Bt5 billion next year and in 2010.

"We're now negotiating with our partner from Singapore, and that will be complete by the end of the year. Then we'll apply for our company to be listed with the Market for Alternative Investment," said managing director Linpitch Aksaranuwat.

He said his company had delayed its listing application to next year, because of negative market sentiment resulting from political and economic problems. It now wants to close the deal with the Singaporean partner, which will strengthen the company's business structure.

Siam Nuwat has registered capital of Bt20 million and plans to increase it to Bt50 million this year. The company's major shareholder is the Aksaranuwat family.

The company launched its first city condominium project last year, the Bt650-million Wish@Siam. It is now sold out, and construction of the first of its two buildings is expected to be complete by next March. The second building will be completed and delivered to customers by the end of next year.

Siam Nuwat held a grand opening for its second city-condominium project yesterday. The 24-storey residential condominium, which will be worth Bt3 billion, will be called Wish@Samyan. Consisting of 485 units, prices will start at Bt87,000 per square metre. The company sold 20 per cent of the project before the soft opening and expects to reach 50 per cent after the grand opening.

Linpitch said Siam Nuwat had appointed real-estate firm Harrison as its executive sales agent.

"The sales agent's strategy is to sell the condominium lot by lot. The first lot, or 20 per cent of the project value, sold for Bt87,000 a square metre. But we've now adjusted our selling price for the next 30 per cent by 5-7 per cent, to between Bt92,000 and Bt93,000 a square metre. After that, we may increase the price again following demand, in order to help us to manage our rising construction costs caused by higher costs for raw materials," he said.

Meanwhile, the company plans to launch a third city-condominium project in the fourth quarter. It will be worth between Bt1.5 billion and Bt2 billion and built on either Sathorn or Phetchaburi road.

Linpitch said the company earlier planned to launch Wish@Phetchaburi Road in the first half of this year, but the project was delayed when the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration imposed a height limit of 23 metres on new buildings around Sa Pathum Palace that is supposed to take effect this month. We're waiting to see if the new regulation is in effect or not. If not, we'll launch the third project in this location. If it's still 'wait and see', then we'll launch the third project at another location, maybe on Sathorn Road," he said.

Siam Nuwat is also planning to build two hotels and resorts upcountry next year and in 2010 for a combined cost of Bt3 billion to Bt3.5 billion. The first will be built  in Chiang Mai and the other in Nong Khai.