KPN Group Co, owned by the Narongdej family, aims to raise funds in the stock market to help finance property projects it plans to launch every year.
KPN chairman Kris Narongdej stands next to a model of The Diplomat 39, a luxury condo project the group will launch tomorrow.
"It's our mandate to have an initial public offering," chairman Kris Narongdej said yesterday.
"Acquisition, merger or back-door listing are not interesting as we have built our brand for four years. The back-door process can facilitate getting listed faster, but not for funding."
He denied any connection with ABN Amro Nominees Singapore Pte, which was reportedly trying to launch a hostile takeover of the SET-listed Noble Development Plc last year. Mr Kris owns a 0.77% stake in Noble Development.
KPN is consulting a few financial advisers to prepare the company to list on the SET to raise proceeds for financing new development projects, he said.
"We focus on residential development, both condos and low-rise projects. We are also interested in serviced apartments and office buildings as the yield is higher than hotels, which are sensitive to the political situation. Hotels also require investment for renovation," said Mr Kris.
This year it will realise revenue from two projects it launched the past few years — The Capital Ekamai-Thonglor and The Capital Ratchaprarop-Vibha — worth a combined 3 billion baht.
No projects are slated for 2016 while The Diplomat Sathorn is scheduled for 2017.
This year the company will launch two new condo projects. The Diplomat 39 is a luxury condo worth 3.6 billion baht on a one-rai site on Sukhumvit Soi 39.
The launch is planned for tomorrow and the project will be a 31-storey building with 156 units sized 54-450 square metres, priced from 15-185 million baht a unit, or 280,000-410,000 baht per square metre.
The group is confident the project will sell out quickly because of strong demand for luxury condos at this location, as the high-end shopping malls Emquartier and Emsphere are scheduled to be completed this year and next, respectively.
"The landscape near the Phrom Phong skytrain station is changing. With the new malls, the prime residential area will shift to the odd-numbered sois or Sukhumvit Soi 39 from even-numbered sois or Sukhumvit Sois 24 and 26," he said.
It expects 30% of the purchases to be for investment as the units on Sukhumvit sois 39, 49 and 55 are the best rental markets.
The price of prime land plots on these three sois, the most popular locations for upper-end buyers and Japanese tenants, soared over 10% year-on-year on average and up to 20% for some plots. Some land is now offered at 2 million baht per sq wah.
Property consultant CB Richard Ellis (Thailand) reported the price of new condo units downtown more than doubled from 78,000-105,000 baht per sq m to 160,000-220,000 baht the past decade. Sukhumvit condos soared from 84,000 baht per sq m to 180,000 baht.