TTA close to sealing Myanmar water deal

Shipper continues to diversify operations

SINGAPORE: SET-listed Thoresen Thai Agencies Plc (TTA) expects a deal to join local partners in Myanmar to invest in a wastewater management business will be finalised this month.

Chief executive Chalermchai Mahagitsiri said TTA was still in talks with potential partners and the Myanmar government about the Yangon project.

“We’ve been following up the wastewater management deal closely,” he told reporters while in the city-state yesterday.

“A deal has not been concluded yet, but we’re quite close to one.”

Mr Chalermchai said the deal would be the next step in TTA’s diversification after it acquired a 9% stake in China’s Sino Grandness Food Industry Group.

The company will also maintain its strategy of a greater international focus, mostly in China and Asean members Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, Indonesia and the Philippines.

“TTA is seeing more opportunities to grow in Asean because it has greater potential to grow more quickly than the US and EU markets, where the economies have not yet fully recovered,” Mr Chalermchai said.

He said his company would focus more on shipping-related business, especially energy and transport, to improve its efficiency and cut logistics costs.

Mr Chalermchai said TTA would continue to expand via mergers and acquisitions, for which it has allocated 10 billion baht this year.

“TTA is interested in investing in the power business internationally, especially renewable energy such as wind, solar and biomass, all of which have quite high internal rates of return,” he said.

Mr Chalermchai said TTA had been affected by the Chinese economic slowdown, especially its shipping business. It plans to continue to control costs and manage its fleet to ensure maximum efficiency, focusing on bulk transport on more lucrative strategic routes.

“The Chinese slowdown and weaker oil prices have hurt us, but we still expect 10% revenue growth this year,” he added.

TTA shares closed yesterday on the SET at 10.20 baht, unchanged, in trade worth 28.3 million baht.