TAMC optimistic to sell bad loans this year

Investment in property yields longterm return higher than other investment alternatives, Chaovarat Chaochavanil executive vice president of the TAMC told press conference yesterday.

He said the TAMC target to sell land plots and buildings worth Bt9.4 billion this year. "We did not revise down our target set in October last year because we still think investors still have money to invest," he said.

Chaovarat said that investment in stocks currently have been hard hit, while investment in gold is also subject to highly volatility. As the same time deposit money in banks face lower interest rates.

He said the TAMC also have several land plots in prime areas, such as on the bank of Chaophya River, in resort island in the South and Chiang Mai in the north. 

 The TAMC will spend about Bt30 to 40 million for ads campaign to sell these land plots, he said.

It has 1,610 rai of land plot in Koh Yao in Pangnga province, 39 rai in Hua Hin and 50 rai in Nakhon Ratchasima close to Khao Yai, a national park.

It also owns condominium in downtown of Bangkok, located at Pratunam. The project is valued at Bt803 million. It also has land plot on Vipavadee Rangsit Road in Rangsit and on KasetNavamin Road in Bangkok.

"We will not cut price for our property in prime areas," he insisted. Chaovarat, however, said that price of some land plots may be reduce in order to attract potential buyers. He said he recognized that sale would be adversely for some extent affected by investor poor sentiment and strict lending by commercial banks.

The TAMC will also make a campaign to sell property to local governments which need land to develop their communities for example to build sport fields, he said. Selling land to local government and other government agencies is much easier to selling to private investors since it needs not to hold competitive bidding, he said.

Last year the TAMC sold distressed assets worth Bt10.5 billion. These were assets of defunct finance firms and debtors of Financial Institutions Development Fund (FIDF) which made failure rescue them during 1997financial crisis. Sale last year slightly higher than its target of Bt13.3 billion, said Chaovarat.

Its outstanding sale reached Bt38 billion while nonperforming assets (NPAs) waiting for sale estimated to be worth Bt76 billion.

As a result of foreclosure, TAMC expects to get new property worth of Bt20 billion this year and Bt10 billion next year.

The asset management organisation is due to be liquidated according to the law in 2011 and remaining assets are expected to be transferred to two stateowned Sukhumvit Asset Management Co (SAM)and Bangkok Commercial Asset Management Co (BAM).