Bangkok Airways Plc's real estate investment fund BAREIT will be available to invest in next week with an expected yield of 8.09-8.95% in the first year, reflecting the growth potential of its Samui Airport-based assets, the regional carrier said on Monday.
Investors can purchase the BAREIT trust fund from Aug 22-26 with a minimum investment of 10,000 baht. At 10 baht apiece, the units can be reserved via Kasikorn Bank (Kbank), Bangkok Bank (BBL), Krungthai Bank (KTB), KGI Securities (Thailand), KTBST Securities, PIE Securities, and Maybank Securities (Thailand).
Puttipong Prasarttong-Osoth, the airline's president, said BAREIT's investment in the leasehold rights for real estate at Samui Airport makes it a timely opportunity as tourists are now returning to Thailand.
He predicted that this year Thailand will see 7-10 million international tourists and the tourism industry will fully recover to pre-pandemic levels by 2024. Samui Airport is Thailand's first privately-owned airport and is capable of handling 16,000 passengers a day, or about six million passengers a year.
"This will result in Samui Airport becoming more active and generating a stable income for investors as it is located in a strategic location for tourism with its connections to major cities in the region," he said.
Mr Puttipong added that it is an international airport which has won awards for its punctuality and sustainability-focused design. Over the past decade, the airport received more than 2.6 million people per year.
The trust is intended to have a total value that does not exceed 14.3 billion baht, composed of fundraising from trust units and long-term loans. The former will have a value of less than 10.33 billion baht, and the latter's value will be less than 5.06 billion baht.
Additionally, BAREIT will receive income from the sublease of its assets to Bangkok Airport Management Co, a subsidiary of Bangkok Airways.
This rent will allow for consistent returns for investors over a period of 25 years under the condition that rents can be increased by 2% each year.
The trust units will be tradeable on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) in September 2022.