The IPO aims to raise capital for additional land purchase in Bang Bua Thong District, Nonthaburi Province as well as for business expansion, Piyapa Chongsathein, Managing Director of S14 Advisory Co Ltd, who has been appointed as the company’s financial advisor, said on Monday.

At present, the company’s registered capital of Bt300 million consists of 300 million common shares, and the paid-up capital of the Company is equal to Bt225 million. After the IPO, the Company’s paid-up capital will increase to Bt300 million.

KUN’s chief executive officer Praweerat Dheva-Aksorn said that the company plans to launch another 3 new projects worth a total of approximately Bt2.82 billion this year to boost its presales for the year.

The group of companies reported total revenue from 2016 to 2018 of Bt297.50 million, Bt450.38 million, and Bt447.09 million and a net profit of Bt5.94 million, Bt10.80 million, and Bt11.56 million respectively.

Reverse-mortgage loans are among financial products that could help citizens as the country moves to an ageing society, according to Government Housing Bank (GHB) president Chatchai Sirilai.

“We have set aside Bt1 billion for reverse-mortgage loans at this first stage as the latest move by Government Housing Bank to address this issue. This will cover Bangkok and the suburban market for customers aged over 60 but not above 80 years, and who also own residences and need more funds for their life needs,” he said.

The loan can be up to 50 per cent of the appraised value of housing but not over Bt10 million per unit. The reverse-mortgage loan will offer an interest rate of 6.25 per cent a year for the period of the loan contract.

Under the contract, the bank will pay money monthly to its customers throughout the contract life.

For example, a reverse-mortgage loan of Bt2 million could be approved for a customer aged 65 under a 20-year contract. The customer would receive a Bt8,300 monthly loan payment through to the contract’s end.

“This is the model to help an ageing citizen who has the asset, but does not have the income to use the asset. The citizen could get the loan to spend on their way of life,” Chatchai said.

Since the new financial package was launched, five GHB customers have shown interest.

The bank also boasts a policy to provide project loans at a special interest rate to developers planning residential units for ageing people, said Chatchai.

For example, the bank has signed a memorandum of understanding with Thammasat University to provide a Bt5-million loan to develop its Innovation Hub at Pattaya. The investment budget of Bt5 billion will see 24,000 square metres of land developed for the innovation and medical hub.

The project features 10 buildings including a co-working space, a “smart space for active learning” and a business co-working space. The project will also house a medical centre hub with specialist medical care such as dermatology, cardiology, orthopaedics, ageing care and others.

“We provided a loan for its prototype project that will cover ageing medical care. If it is a success, it will be part of the country’s support to facilitate the needs of ageing people,” Chatchai said.

He added that the reverse-mortgage loan is one among a variety of tools needed to serve the country as it transitions to an ageing society. The key to improving the quality of life is to develop the country’s medical care to serve the demands of the ageing sector.

Government Savings Bank (GSB) is another bank to offer reverse- mortgage loans to its customers, a service it launched in 2017.

GSB has allocated Bt10 billion for the loan scheme.

According to its reverse-mortgage loan policy, the bank credit is capped at a maximum of Bt10 million per loan.

Its chief executive and president Chatchai Payuhanaveechai said recently that reverse mortgages serve to convert home equity into cash for seniors. Those aged 60-80 years and who have a debt-free home within Bangkok and suburban areas are eligible to seek a reverse mortgage.

The loan has a maximum term of 25 years, but the borrower’s age may not exceed 85 years when the loan term ends, he said.

“This is a part of supporting the country as it moves to an ageing society,” he said.

Istanbul’s model for the aged

Following the design of financial package to serve Thailand’s ageing society, GHB president Chatchai said his bank has been studying how overฌseas countries, including Japan and Turkey, are approaching their ageing societies.

They learned that Darulaceze Baskanligi, an institute in Istanbul, was established in 1896 to help care for lower-income people and the aged at the time of a war between Turkey and Russia. Till now,

Darulaceze has continued to help lower-income people aged over 65, as well as children without a family to care for them. The institute currently houses 510 people, 18 of them children without families and the remainder aged over 65, said a Darulaceze staff member.

The facility has a 560-bed capacity.

Up to 70 per cent of the institute’s income comes from donations and the remaining 30 per cent comes from those housed in the facility if they have the income to contribute. If they lack income, they are allowed to remain free of charge if they meet the criteria, she said.

Most of those who can pay their 30 per cent contribution to Darulaceze donate about 7,000 Turkish lira (about Bt42,000) yearly, mainly from their pension funds or from a reverse-mortgage loan, she said.

She added that the institute also welcomes people who remain in their homes but work at the Darulaceze doing painting, weaving or other skilled work. The institute pays them a monthly income.

“We learned how to take care of ageing people and improve their quality of life, and the number of ageing people was up to 17 per cent of the country’s total population in the year 2017. The country will soon move to an ageing society,” she said.

GHB’s president Chatchai added that reverse-mortgage loans are one way to support ageing people, ensuring they have money to spend when they retire from their work. Meanwhile, the government must also implement other measures to take care of all of them, especially in the health management system.

“When we talk about homes for the aged as a way to support ageing people, we must not only provide reverse-mortgage loans for them. Developers have to be concerned about the health system that is necessary for ageing residents, because ageing citizens need a better healthcare system to meet their lifestyle,” he said.

The bank’s president Chatchai Sirilai said the value of home loans written out by GHB had plunged 35 per cent drop since the introduction of new loan-to-value (LTV) ratios on April 1, highlighting the need to shore up the residential market.

Under the measures, the loan value for buyers of a first home has been reduced to about 90 per cent of the value of the property; for second homes, the loan value has been limited to 80 per cent of the property value; and for third homes, the loan limit has been set at 70 per cent.

In April, the first month of the new measures, the value of home loans extended by the bank has dropped 35 per cent from the same month last year, to only Bt9 billion.

From May 1 to 15, the bank has approved just Bt4.5 billion in loans, also representing a drop of 35 per cent from the same period last year, Chatchai said.

He said the measures had directly impacted the property sector and, for the bank, it meant that GHB would not be able to meet its loan target of Bt203 billion for this year if the government does not bring in market-supporting initiatives or discuss ways to ease the loan rules with the Bank of Thailand.

“We cannot say what we proposed. However, the Finance Ministry has to discuss ways with the Bank of Thailand on how it can revise the measures. If no new measures are introduced to boost the market in the second half of this year, our new loans may end up being lower than our early target,” Chatchai said.

GHB said its new mortgages for the year to May 15 came to Bt57.54 billion. The bank expects its new mortgage loans will reach Bt100 billion in the first half of this year, on expectations of government measures to boost the property market.

The bank had outstanding loans of Bt1.128 trillion at the end of March, up 7.88 per cent from the same period of last year. Its non-performing loans stood at Bt49.295 billion at March 31, or 4.37 per cent of its total outstanding loans. This marks a rise of 0.03 per cent from the end of 2018.

The bank also plans to introduce what it calls a savings lottery, worth Bt107 billion over this year and the next. This is part of efforts to reduce the bank’s financial costs from 2.04 per cent to 1.7 per cent.

“We are issuing the savings lottery as a funding exercise that reduces our financial cost for mortgage loans, which will be offered for lower-income people who buy homes priced below Bt1 million,” Chatchai said.

“They will get an interest rate for the mortgage loan of not over 3 per cent, compared with general customers who will get a loan with interest of 4.5-6 per cent. The loans for the general customers will draw on the capital from our normal business.”

It is planned that the first phase of the three-year saving lottery will be in September; it will be worth Bt27 billion with an interest rate of 1.4 per cent and be offered under a Bt1 million per savings lottery.

Chatchai said that the customers participating in the savings lottery will get the opportunity to win in a lucky draw worth up to Bt200,000 a month. The second phase, worth Bt30 billion, will be sold at Bt10 million per savings lottery and is likely to be issued at the end of this year or in the first quarter of next year. The last phase, worth Bt50 billion, will be offered to customers at a price of Bt500 per savings lottery next year, Chatchai said.

The bank has approved a loan package for lower-income earners totally 6,300 contracts who buy a home priced at under Bt1 million. Under the promotion, one million residential units will be offered to people in this income group under a government policy launched on January 2.

Some 6,300 contracts worth Bt4.3 billion have been signed; 127,000 people had registered to apply for the loans.

The bank plans to invite more customers to register their interest in the campaign in September, with the subsequent loans issued to be covered under the Bt50 billion budget for the scheme.

“The Cabinet has already to approved the extension of the period of this campaign from the end of this year to 2021. This will provide time for lower-income customers to improve their financial situation in order to secure a loan when the bank launches the latest measures to help them,” Chatchai said.

The Bank of Thailand’s new mortgage rule reduced the amount of permitted loans to about 90 per cent of residential value, 80 per cent for a second home, and 70 per cent for a third home, effective on April 1, 2019.

The bank approved Bt9 billion in new loans in April, a 35-per cent drop from the same month of last year. From May 1-15, approved loans totalled Bt4.5 billion, another drop of about 35 per cent below the same period in 2018, said Chatchai.

The measure has impacted directly on the property sector, Chatchai said. His bank cannot meet its loan-approval target of Bt203 billion this year unless the government takes action to support the market or holds talks with the Bank of Thailand to relax the rule for the government’s bank, he said.

“Commercial banks have other products that can reduce the impact from the loan-to-value rule, such as through providing personal loans together with mortgage loans. But we are the government’s bank and cannot to do like the commercial banks. As a result, our mortgage loans in April and for half of this month are lower than our target,” he said.

GHB has announced new mortgage loans totalling Bt57.54 billion from January till May 15, 2019. The bank also expects new mortgage loans will reach Bt100 billion in the first half of this year, close to its target. But it expects that the government will announce measures to boost the property market starting in the remainder of the second quarter of this year.

“If there are no new measures, our new loans may be lower than our early target,” Chatchai warned.

Promoted as the “well-living town for the next generation,” the 48-hectare community will offer residential projects, common areas and purpose-built facilities aimed to promote the well-being of all residents.

Sansiri sees the project as offering the optimal development for the next generation of people and in pursuit of that is partnering with Samitivej Hospital and Brighton College Bangkok and will also pursue a community mall in the future.

The first residence to be launched is Setthasiri Krungthep Kreetha 2, a single-house project of 169 units worth Bt3.5 billion set on a 54-rai land plot, said Somkiat Hongsuppinyo, executive vice president of the low-rise project development division of Sansiri Public Co Ltd.

Presales will be available June 1-2 at a price range of Bt14 million to Bt36 million, he added.

“Smart and green” development is the best approach for building in all of the cities within the Asean region, architecture experts say.

“When we say that the way to develop cities is make them ‘smart and green’, we’re talking about developing sustainable cities in the Asean countries and globally during this age of climate change,” said Professor Jason Pomeroy, founder of Pomeroy Studio and Pomeroy Academy. “The focus is on six ideas for designing and developing cities – social, spatial, environment, culture, economics, and technology,” Pomeroy told the InvestAsia 2019 conference in Singapore last week.

Regarding social issue, when building the city has to embrace the great outdoors with landscaping of public areas, Pomeroy explained at the session titled, “Sustainable Cities – Is It Too Late For Asia?”

“When we design a building or a city, we need to involve all the people that are necessary to create a sustainable community,” he said.

Meanwhile, spatial considerations are also necessary because all cities must manage their structures to serve all demands and also be concerned with the quality of life for residents.

In addition, “smart and green” cities have to be concerned about the environment.

“When we design cities, they have to have a plan for a carbon-negative future by using alternative energy to reduce CO2. This will improve the cities as they become ‘sustainable’ cities,” he said.

Blending in with the city

All cities also have their unique culture, and the design of individual buildings and the overall city has to be concerned with that culture. When Pomeroy designed a residence in Myanmar, for example, he had to learn about the country’s culture, and come up with a design that combined the ideas of the architect with the country’s culture. This approach will combine together the global and the local, he said.

“In my view, when designing a smart and sustainable city, you have to be concerned with the community and culture, together with technology and innovation. A city’s design to ensure the wellbeing of all people requires the collaboration of all together. This is the way to have sustainable cities for the long term,” he said.

Alina Yeo, director of architecture firm WOHA, spoke to the event on the topic, “Garden City Mega City: Strategies for 21st Century Sustainable Cities”. Architectural design has to be concerned about the environment, she said.

“When we design a building, we are concerned about the green area. This is the way WOHA Group design our buildings in Singapore and the other countries in Asia,” she said.

Building a green space into any design will improve the quality of life for those who live there, while also creating the environmentally best landscapes surrounding the building, she said.

Following the trend, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced on April 4, 2019 the development of a $1 billion (Bt31.6 billion) joint facility to finance green infrastructure investments across Southeast Asia.

Mobilising resources and expertise from the Asean Infrastructure Fund (AIF), Kreditanstalt fuer Wiederaufbau (KfW), the European Investment Bank (EIB), and the Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD), the Asean Catalytic Green Finance Facility will aid climatevulnerable countries in the region to meet their commitments under the Paris Agreement, while helping ADB achieve its longterm operational targets, a credit positive.

The new facility will help Asean countries to identify and design projects that are tied to measurable “green” and climaterelated goals. In addition to direct financing through the provision of loans, funding will also be made available to reduce the risks associated with investing in green infrastructure, including guarantees, in order to promote priฌvate sector cofinancing.

The facility’s development is not expected to affect ADB’s financial position, but rather to help the bank achieve its $6 billion climate financing target by 2020. As of 2017, ADB’s aggregate climate financing had reached $5.2 billion.

The new facility will also help ADB attain more ambitious targets under Strategy 2030, its longterm corporate strategy launched in 2018.

Under Strategy 2030, the bank has committed to $80 billion in cumulative climate financing between 2019 and 2030, with 75 per cent of its committed operations addressing climate change mitigation and adaptation by 2030.

The $1billion facility will increase resources available to Asean governments. After being established as a joint initiative by the ADB and Asean governments in 2011, the AIF committed $520 million for energy, transport, water and urban infrastructure projects to addressed risks posed by climate change to economic activity, infrastructure and populations in the region.

One example of ADB’s role in developing climate resiliency within Asean was its $600 million (including $100 million from the AIF) 2017 commitment to Indonesia to improve food security and reduce poverty in rural areas by modernising agricultural irrigation systems. Enhancing resiliency in Indonesia’s agricultural sector was seen as a way to reduce the economy’s overall susceptibility to adverse climate shocks.

The ADB is also financing the development of the $100-million Hanoi-Ho Chi Minh City power grid development project in Vietnam, which aims to improve electricity supply and reliability by reducing green-house gas emissions and power losses caused by overloading. With a growฌing urban population, meeting the increase in national electricity demand in a sustainable manner is expected to help build the economy’s development potential and overall resiliency.

Climate change can negatively affect national credit profiles through a variety of channels, including disฌrupting economic activity, damaging infrastructure, raising social costs and shifting populations.

As Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) continue to play an increasingly important role in lowcost climate financing and technical assistance for climate-vulnerable jurisdictions, the ADB expects that MDB climate financing will “crowd in” other cofinancing. The bank’s research found that every dollar of MDB climate financing generated an additional $1.70 in public and private climate cofinancing between 2015 and year-end 2017.

The AIF facility is also an illustration of the MDB response to shareholder demands to address climate change and environmental effects in their lending activity, which is expected to contribute to ongoing strong shareholder support for MDBs since they align MDB operations with their mandates.

Pruksa Holding Plc achieved total revenue of Bt11.9 billion and Bt1.68 billion in net profit for the first quarter of this year, up 43.7 per cent and 95.6 per cent from the same period of last year.

Right behind them was AP (Thailand) Plc with total revenue of Bt7.79 billion and Bt1.07 billion in net profit for the quarter, up 41.2 per cent and 24.6 per cent respectively from last year.

Meanwhile, Land and Houses Plc shows total quarterly revenue of Bt5.69 billion and net profit of Bt1.82 billion, a drop of 28.54 per cent and 25.95 per cent respectively from the same period last year. (For other results, see graphic.)

“Our total revenue and net profit dropped in the first quarter of this year when the number of condominium units that were able to be transferred to customers in the first quarter were lower than the same period of last year. Some of our customers were rejected [by banks] to transfer some of our condominium units,” read a management report from Land and Houses Plc to the Stock Exchange of Thailand late on Monday.

However, Land and Houses still showed a net profit margin at 31.98 per cent, higher than other property firms in the industry that recorded a net profit margin between 10 per cent and 14 per cent. The high margin reflected recurring income still maintaining growth at Land and Houses.

Pruksa Holding Plc’s deputy group chief executive officer Supattra Paopiamsap said the company was showing strong financial growth for the first quarter, following strong demand in the market.

To boost its sales in the second quarter the company aims to launch 17 new residential projects, worth over Bt22.45 billion, comprising eight townhouse projects, seven single-detached house projects and two premium projects, she said.

SC Asset Corporation Plc’s chief corporate officer Attapol Sariddipuntawat also pointed to strong financial growth for the first quarter, thanks to strong demand in the market. The company is planning to launch new condominium project, Scope Langsuan, worth Bt7.8 billion and located at Langsuan to boost its presales in the second quarter. This is one of 13 new residential projects worth Bt22.7 billion scheduled to launch this year.

Meanwhile, the company has a total backlog worth Bt9.7 billion, up to 65 per cent of which will be booked as revenue over the rest of this year, he said.

Origin Property Plc’s chief executive officer Peerapong Charoon-Eak also said his company showed strong financial result in the first three months, thanks to strong demand in the market. The company is projecting total presales will reach Bt19 billion by the end of this year.