Local industrial-estate developers have been hard hit by political uncertainty and the coup, particularly Amata Corporation Plc which has revised down its land sales target for the third time in three weeks.

Amata, the country's largest industrial-land developer, yesterday announced it had revised down its target to 750 rai from 1,000 rai to reflect the wait-and-see attitude of investors as a result of political uncertainty.

The company had cut its sales target last week to 1,000 rai from 1,500 rai, which in turn had been reduced from 2,000 rai on Sept 6.

Director Viboon Kromadit said certain foreign investors could not delay their investments while political reform was under way in Thailand and had decided to move their investments elsewhere.

He called on the new government to find appropriate solutions to convince investors that Thailand remained strong as a production base and offered more attractive incentives.

Thailand has been gripped by political uncertainty since early this year. The resulting negative investment sentiment has significantly brought down the company's land sales.

However, the operations of nearly 500 factories in the industrial parks run by Amata were not hurt by last week's coup and Amata continues to supply electricity, water, water treatment and other services to them.

Mr Viboon said the company would adjust its business plan to cope with the political change in the last quarter of this year.

Another SET-listed industrial-land developer, Nava Nakorn Plc, also predicted its operating profit this year would decline when compared to last year, when it posted a strong profit of 225 million baht. Poor land sales in the third quarter of this year and land price discounts offered to attract investors are among the factors, according to managing director Nipit Arunvongse Na Ayudhya.

Nava Nakorn posted a net profit of 106.48 million baht in the first half this year, up 25.8% from the same period last year, mainly contributed by land sales at its facilities in Pathum Thani and Nakhon Ratchasima.

To boost profit, he said, the company was considering expanding its industrial park in Pathum Thani to help generate extra revenue in the long term in addition to land sales and utility service charges.

The expansion may involve the development of commercial buildings, apartments and fresh food markets on 250 rai of land. About 20 out of 250 rai will be developed in the first phase, tentatively by the end of this year.

The company projected revenue this year at 800-900 million baht compared to 856.6 million baht last year.

But another SET-listed industrial-estate developer, Hemaraj Land and Development Plc, said it would not revise down the projection it made early this year despite the unclear political situation, according to president and chief executive David Nardone.

Hemaraj was confident of sales of between 800 and 1,000 rai this year.

''The ongoing expansion of petrochemical and automotive industries, which are Hemaraj's core customers, allows us to fulfil our business target for the year,'' said Mr Nardone.

But he conceded that new investors would wait for a few weeks to see how the situation would play out.

In the case of Hemaraj, several land-sale contracts were about to be signed in the fourth quarter, said Mr Nardone.

Amata shares closed yesterday at 12.40 baht, up 80 satang, while Nava Nakorn shares closed at 1.42 baht, down two satang, and Hemaraj shares closed at 0.91 baht, unchanged.

Source - 27 September 2006 Bangkok Post