CP Land Plc, the property arm of agribusiness conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group, plans to pay 500 million baht this year to take over an office building in Yangon.
It also plans to pay 1 billion baht for a hotel in Croatia next year.
Vice-president Naravadee Waravanitcha said on Friday soaring demand for office space in Yangon had prompted the company to invest in Myanmar's commercial capital.
“Office rents per month in Yangon are as high as 2,400 baht a square metre, more than double the maximum rate for Bangkok’s grade-A office space,” she said.
“We believe our investment will break even within five years.”
CP Land will sign a memorandum of understanding to buy an eight-storey office building from a local owner.
With a lettable area of 6,000 sq m, a building formerly used by government agencies will have rental rates of $60-80 per sq m per month, Ms Naravadee said.
After visiting Croatia last month, company executives are keen to invest in hotel business in the scenic European country.
It has held initial talks with owners of hotels with 250-400 rooms and would consider a joint venture or an acquisition, but the latter would be preferable.
CP Land also wants to draw foreigners to invest in Thailand including Chinese firms interested in joint ventures for construction or industrial estate development.
In Thailand, it is eyeing locations near the government’s infrastructure projects to develop hotels, office buildings, condominiums, convention centres and distribution centres.
“The government should speed up infrastructure projects to fuel the economy, as the country cannot rely only on the private sector,” president and chief executive Sunthorn Arunanondchai said.
The company is developing six office buildings in Udon Thani, Surat Thani, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Songkhla, Nakhon Ratchasima and Bangkok.
Yesterday the company opened CP Tower Phitsanulok, its fourth office building upcountry.
With a total lettable area of 6,884 sq m, the building will have rents of about 500 baht per sq m per month.
CP Land expects revenue of 3 billion baht this year and 6 billion next year.