By Andrew Batt:
A
one-on-one interview over morning coffee at the Fullerton Hotel is
certainly a nice way to get to know Johnson Tan, the new Singaporean
Chief Executive Officer of one of Thailand’s high-end developers.
Interest
in Thai properties has been on the rise, but the deal which saw the Lee
family buy a 24.9 percent stake in Raimon Land ranks as the biggest
Singapore investment in Thai property to date. The deal is also a
serious vote of confidence in Thailand and its property industry.
Tan,
who took up his new role in mid-May and is the sole Singaporean CEO of a
Thai listed company, describes the take-over as being a “challenging”
experience, and he should know. His background includes many years of
experience of mergers and acquisitions, and was solely responsible for
the Raimon Land deal.
For Lionel Lee and his family, this is their
first listed company investment in Thailand although they are no
strangers to either property or listed company investments. They are
probably best known for offshore services group Ezra Holdings in
Singapore, but their overseas investments extend to Malaysia and even as
far as Norway.
Raimon Land is a well-known name in Thailand. The
company is responsible for a number of high profile and high-end,
freehold residential property developments including The River, 185
Rajadamri, Northpoint and Zire in Pattaya. After its launch in Bangkok
last week it can add The Lofts Ekkamai to the list.
Tan is
resisting the urge to significantly change the Raimon Land business
model, although he understands the need to diversify and look beyond the
company’s current markets.
“Raimon Land has a reputation for
delivering high-end products, and that’s not going to change”, says Tan.
“Commercial aspects of our developments, such as The Vue which is part
of The River, will continue to play an important part of our projects.
We certainly need to have residential alongside something else.”
The
River, an aptly named development on the banks of the Chao Phraya River
in central Bangkok, has sold more than 90 percent to date with a number
of high-profile buyers including from Singapore. A significant number
of buyers are also repeat buyers, says Tan – another vote of confidence
in the company’s offerings.
An important part of The River development is The Vue, a commercial development for which Tan has high aspirations.
“I
want The Cube to really make a statement,” he says. “I want people to
come to Bangkok and say ‘I want to visit Siam Paragon, I want to eat at
Greyhound, and I want to visit The Vue’.” With that goal in mind Tan is
hiring a commercial director solely for The Vue.
With limited
land supply in prime areas of the Thai capital, Tan and his team face an
ever-increasing battle for competitively-priced land in good locations.
He
says: “That’s one of our challenges but we are certainly not into
chasing the BTS”, alluding to the rush by some Thai developers to buy
land and develop mass-market condominiums close to existing and planned
mass transportation networks.
Looking forward Tan is
understandably very positive about the property market in Thailand. For
Raimon Land under his leadership, the future looks promising.
He
says: “I’m not ruling anything out for Raimon Land. We dominate the
upper end of the market but how big is the upper end? We will look at
regional expansion but only if the numbers make sense. We have to stay
focused and remember what Raimon Land is all about.”
This article first appeared in Issue 35 of The PropertyGuru newspaper, Singapore’s only property newspaper. You can download a copy of the latest digital edition here.
Andrew Batt, International Group Editor of PropertyGuru, wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories email andrew@allproperty.com.sg
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