Cash-strapped Italian-Thai Development (ITD) is confident it will be granted additional financial support from banks to complete more than 100 ongoing construction projects, in addition to bidding for more projects from the now-active fiscal 2024 budget.
The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET)-listed company plans to sell its non-performing assets, including Asia-Pacific Potash Corp, while a Thai-Chinese consortium has expressed interest in taking over infrastructure it invested in at Myanmar's Dawei Special Economic Zone, executives said on Tuesday.
Chatichai Chutima, senior deputy chief executive for finance at ITD, expressed optimism as the company's debenture holders agreed to extend payments by two years for its five tranches of debentures worth more than 14 billion baht.
The debenture holders also agreed with ITD's proposal to adjust the debt-to-equity ratio for fiscal years 2023-2025, and allowed the company to enter debt restructuring talks with banks, he said.
"We have received some additional loans from banks and are confident that the ongoing negotiations will be concluded in a way that allows the company to continue our operations," Mr Chatichai told the online briefing as he declined to reveal the amount ITD has asked for from banks.
Shares of ITD have been suspended on the SET since March 29 as the company's auditor declined to issue an opinion on the firm's financial statements, or has been unable to express confidence in them, prompting the Securities and Exchange Commission to possibly require an amendment.
According to the SET, ITD had total revenue of 64.5 billion baht last year, down from 67.8 billion baht in 2022, as net losses fell to 1.07 billion baht from more than 4.75 billion baht. From 2020-2023, the contractor posted total losses of more than 7 billion baht.
Once Thailand's largest contractor by market capitalisation, ITD's liabilities totalled roughly 107 billion baht as of December 2023.
ITD said in mid-March that revenue from construction projects is insufficient to cover overall expenses and some employees have not been paid their full salaries. The contractor expects to resolve the cash flow problem in two to three months.
Mr Chatichai said ITD has been negotiating with the Myanmar government after the latter wanted to revoke the contract awarded to the Thai contractor in Dawei. A Thai construction company and Chinese investors have expressed interest in taking over ITD's assets and concessions there.
The company is also in the process of appointing a financial advisor for the sale of its potash mining project in Northeastern Thailand.