Jareeporn Jarukornsakul, group chief executive officer of WHA Corp, said the joint venture, WHA Daiwa Logistics Property, would pursue two large logistics centres in the Laem Chabang and Bangna-Trat (Chonlaharn) areas for a total investment cost of Bt2.3515 billion. WHA will hold 51 per cent of the JV and Daiwa the remaining balance,

“Daiwa has prepared a budget of several billions of baht to join us in several other projects,” she said.

“It is our strategy not to focus on competing, but rather on having strategic partnerships with people doing similar businesses that will make us No 1 and growing larger.”

She said WHA was discussing with Daiwa the possibility of forming joint ventures to pursue new logistic projects in neighbouring countries, especially Indonesia and Vietnam, where both companies already have some projects.

Daiwa managing executive officer Tatsuya Urakawa said the company had earmarked 700 billion yen (Bt235 billion) for investments over the next three years, of which 360 billion yen would go for logistics. Of the total logistics investment budget, 10-20 per cent is expected to be for Asean, including Thailand.

The WHA joint venture marks Daiwa’s first entry to the Thai market, after its inroads to Vietnam’s logistics market in 2011 and Indonesia’s in 2012. The company has also entered the housing-prefabrication business in Malaysia.

Daiwa expects its Thai business to generate similar revenue as its Indonesian and Vietnamese businesses, each of which currently generates between 3 billion and 4 billion yen annually. It is also considering entering the elderly-care and healthcare businesses in Thailand in the future.

Jareeporn said the JV planned to add the Laem Chabang and Chonlaharn assets to the WHA Real Estate Investment Trust by 2018-19 and thus quickly earn a return from their investments.

Honda Logistics is the sole customer for the Laem Chabang project. Its first phase of about 22,500 square metres was handed over in the third quarter of last year, and the second phase of 23,000sqm is expected for completion in mid-2017.

The Chonlaharn project has already found customers for 60 per cent of its total leasable area of 74,000sqm and is expected to sold out by the end of this year, she said.

The two projects are expected to book total annual income of more than Bt200 million.

Meanwhile, to capitalise on the government’s planned Eastern Economic Corridor, Jareeporn said WHA had reserved a 500-rai (80-hectare) plot of land 18 kilometres from U-tapao Airport for development of an aerospace cluster, and another 100 rai adjacent to that for a robotics cluster.

WHA will submit a filing document to the securities authorities by the end of this month to list its power and utilities subsidiary on the Stock Exchange of Thailand, either by the fourth quarter of this year or the first quarter of 2017.

WHA currently controls about 2 million square metres of various logistics facilities in Thailand, including built-to-suit facilities for specific tenants, multi-tenant warehouse farms, ready-built factories, and warehouses.

In Japan, Daiwa counts 222 logistics facilities representing a total area of about 6.4 million square metres.