Thai firm to raise $70m

Ticon, a Bangkok-listed property fund, is raising capital in the public markets in order to invest in factory and warehouse buildings throughout the country.

Thailand’s Ticon Property Fund is raising 2.43 billion baht ($70 million; €54 million) of public equity to invest in the Thai real estate market.

Capital will be raised via a rights issue and public offering later this month, said the fund’s manager BBL Asset Management in a statement.

Under the plan, the size of the fund will increase from 5.8 billion baht to 8.2 billion baht, with the capital earmarked for investment in Ticon Industrial Connection, Thailand’s biggest developer of factory and warehouse buildings which owns a 25 percent stake in the Ticon Property Fund. Management of the fund changed hands earlier this year when BBL, owned by Bangkok Bank, acquired the management rights from Dutch firm ING.

To foreign investors, the Thai real estate market is more usually associated with the hotel sector rather than industrial property. In June, Dubai firm Acacia Real Estate acquired a 50 percent stake in three hotels in Thailand through a joint venture with Spanish private equity firm Meridia Capital and Capital Hospitality Group. Investors are increasingly looking, however, to acquire a wider range of assets throughout south east Asia.

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