Thai Asset Management Corporation (TAMC) is confident of selling many land plots at the upcoming sales of its non performing assets (NPA) as local entrepreneurs are interested in agricultural land for investing in energy crops.
TAMC executive vice president Chaovarat Chaochavanil said yesterday that land in the East is more popular for agriculture because major firms are interested in investing for energy crops, while land for tourism is hard to sell due to the bleak outlook of the tourism industry as a result of the political unrest.
The demand for agricultural land will benefit TAMC's sale of NPAs. TAMC has had total sales of Bt7 billion in 2010 so far, against its target for the year of Bt7.4 billion.
In recent bidding, TAMC sold NPAs worth Bt913 million and will open another bidding on July 30.
One of the bidders was Double A (1991), which bought a 3,000rai plot in Prachin Buri at a total price of Bt153 million. Double A wants the land for planting eucalyptus in order to expand its paper business, Chaovarat said.
He said that investors considered the trend of energy crops and agricultural crops yield good returns like oil.
Moreover, major tycoons such as SCG Group, CP Group, Liquor tycoon Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi and Kratingdaeng are also interested in agricultural land for planting energy crops.
Beside land in the East, areas in the Northeast such as Khon Kaen have also drawn the interest of investors. The land boom came to the Northeast after the opening of Central Plaza in Khon Kaen, he said.
On the other hand, land in tourism provinces such as Phuket and Pattaya are drawing less interest as investors have suspended their purchasing following the recent political unrest.
TAMC currently has 10,000 items of NPA in hand, worth a combined Bt80 billion. It plans to speed up the sale of its 260 items of the remaining assets worth more than Bt50 billion before the organisation is dissolved in accordance with the law.
TAMC was established by the government following the 1997 financial crisis to clean up bad loans from both stateowned and commercial banks. It will be dissolved by June 2011.