Posted by: ChartFreak In reply to: None Date:9/27/2005 12:42:20 AM Post #of 137
The Baan Eua-Arthorn low-cost housing project
That's what the Thailand government project is called. I found out through the Bangkok Post that the project size is for the construction of 600,000 housing units (wow) from 2003-2007, with a total budget of USD $7.1 Billion (all dollar amounts converted from Thai Baht). That's another 2 years before completion.
As much as USD $944 Million is being contributed by the government, while USD $5.9 Billion will be sourced from loans. The project has been divided into three phases, some of which is already complete, BUT they have come up WAY short-handed, as they have discovered.
Phase 1 for a modest 4,175 units is complete, at a cost of USD $37 Million.
Phase 2, for a slightly larger 7,552 units, is currently under construction at a cost of USD $74 Million.
But here's the deal:
Phase 3 is for a whopping 140,000 units (still less than the 600K) at a cost of USD $1.6 Billion. As of June 2004 (latest figures available), they had only auctioned off to contractors 34,920 units. That leaves over 100,000 units left for bids (some of which may have come in by now).
Still, that only totals a little over 150,000 units and they want 600,000.
By their own admission, the National Housing Authority has only been able to provide a total of 81,485 homes at the time of the article, but the number of applicants exceeded exceeded 356,888 (summer 2004). They claim the potential was there for the project to be expanded. Ya think?!
Bottomline, there is LOTS of construction work to be done by many contractors at the same time in Thailand, and it appears that they have probably expanded the low-cost affordable housing project from its earlier design. All this bodes well for SWKJ, since low-cost affordable housing is exactly what they build. Government approval may take a few days longer, but SWKJ is, quite frankly, THE stock to watch going forward.
It's my opinion that they will cinch the deal, and that they are probably working out the contracts right now. As we know, SWKJ will not release info ahead of time, but when they do, it's likely that the PPS will undergo a significant rally. The float is tight and there are not a lot of free shares left. Traders will be chasing the stock and unable to get in. I'd suggest holding tight and develop a seige mentality. Just don't let anyone have your shares. That will make them that much more valuable. Ah, the anticipation (it's making me wait!).
CF
