SET-listed developer SC Asset Corporation Plc will continue to invest in rental apartments in the US, with a budget of US$20 million per year for 2023-24, as the recent collapse of American banks would not have any impact on its investment plan.
Despite risk factors such as an upward trend in interest rates in the US, the company's investment in the country was a medium to long-term plan and not a short-term one, said chief corporate officer Attapol Sariddipuntawat.
"The bank collapse has little effect on SC Alpha Inc, our subsidiary for investments in the US, as it has no transactions with troubled US banks," he said.
Currently, SC Alpha operates three serviced apartments in Boston. Two are located on Hanover Street and Parmenter Street, housing a total of 28 units with an 81% occupancy rate.
The third is situated on Salem Street with 13 units and full occupancy.
In the second half of 2023, SC will acquire an apartment on Temple Street in Boston comprising 18 units which are now fully occupied.
"We have a total investment budget of $100 million in the US until 2024 and we have already spent $60 million in the past two years," he said.
"Once the time is appropriate, we plan to exit to capitalise on gains and reinvest the proceeds."
In Thailand, SC will invest 4.5 billion baht to develop two new upscale hotels. The first, situated on a leasehold plot on Sukhumvit Road near Sukhumvit Soi 29, will feature 300 rooms and is set to open in the first quarter of 2025.
In September 2022, SC Expedition Co -- SC's subsidiary for hotel investments -- acquired a 100% stake in FJ BKK Co, a Japanese investor that held the leasehold right of the Sukhumvit 29 plot and earlier planned to develop a hotel on the plot, for a total of 1.42 billion baht.
"The Japanese investor changed their mind and wanted to exit due to the pandemic," he said. "We saw an opportunity and decided to invest as the tourism sector is on an upward trend."
Another new hotel is in Pattaya on Pattaya Sai 2 Road with 320 rooms which will open in the third quarter of 2026.
The plot of land where the hotel is situated is leased by SC from Rende Development, a property company that is owned by the Shinawatra family who are also major shareholders of SC.