“We wish to extend our core business in warehousing and storage management into the overseas market, especially where the bigger customer bases are,” Charvanin Bunditkitsada, chief executive officer of the listed company, said yesterday.

The transaction value for the acquisition of the Malaysian business is about Bt2 billion, he said.

Meanwhile, the company will continue to pursue business expansion and investments via joint-venture and acquisition platforms in the CLMV (Malaysia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam) markets.

Booked as the company’s biggest revenue contributor, warehousing and storage services -covering mainly automotive and auto parts, chemicals and dangerous goods, food and cold chains, and general cargo – now provide about 78 per cent of income.

Charvanin added that the company was also looking for strategic partners in these countries to form joint ventures to expand its customer base, depending on which services were suitable for each market.

“We are now in talks with local partners in the cold-storage service business in Indonesia for a joint venture there.

“However, these are at the initial stage,” he said.

In addition, JWD is looking for an investment in chemical-warehousing services in Vietnam, seeing it as a sector that could have a bright future.

Revenue from the chemicals arm of JWD’s operations currently accounts for 14-15 per cent of its total income.

In the meantime, the chief executive said the company had carried out its expansion plan in a cold-storage project in Myanmar as scheduled, with the business set to open by the end of this month.

Moreover, JWD is looking for more plots of land in Myanmar to build cold-storage facilities in the second phase of its expansion in the country.

JWD spent Bt500 million last year on building warehouses for frozen food in Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia in order to serve demand from food retailers, hotels and restaurants in those countries.

The warehouses cover a combined space of 6,490 square metres.

“JWD targets operating a total of 70,000 square metres of warehousing and storage in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar in 2020,” Charvanin said, adding that by the end of this year, the combined space should reach at 7,000 square metres.

As for the domestic market, he said the company would move forward aggressively.

JWD, which presently focuses on inland logistics services, also expects to grab a share of the sea-freight market via a joint venture with a leading firm in the sector.

“The deal is under negotiation and we expect to be able to reveal details next month,” Charvanin said.

JWD, meanwhile, has been renovating its 9,000-square-metre warehouse and distribution centre in Laem Chabang, as well as the company’s distribution centre for hazardous goods.

The facilities will be inaugurated for business from the middle of April.

The company’s capital expenditure for this year’s investments in Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar is Bt500 million to Bt600 million.

As a result of its expansion in these markets, Charvanin said JWD expected to post double-digit revenue growth this year, with a gross margin of more than 35 per cent.