Mr Anant Asavabhokhin, President and Chief Executive Officer of Land & Houses Public Company Limited said the company and subsidiaries posted revenues totaling 10.41 billion baht from house transfers to buyers in 2001, up 58% from 2000. About 1,900 houses were built and transferred in 2001 compared to 1,500 units in 2000.

Contributing to the big performance improvement was factors following;

1. The company and subsidiaries recorded higher sales up to 3.854 billion baht or a 58% growth from 2000.
2. The company's gross profit margin rose 4.1% from 28.8% to 32.9% due mainly to the efficiency in managing construction cost.
3. The ratio of marketing and sales expenditure to the total sales declined to 9.5% from 12.5% in 2000 because the company had focused on constructing more pre-built houses.
4. Interest expenses in 2001 were reduced by 180 million baht because the company and subsidiaries had gradually repaid debts to creditors. In 2001, the company could successfully lower debts around 3.5 billion baht and its debt to equity ratio stood at 0.7: 1 at the end of 2001, down from 1.2: 1 at the end of 2000.

Mr. Anant said about the trend of company performance in 2002 that the gross profit margin would continue to improve and interest expenses would be reduced more due to the additional debt repayment. L&H projects to see a 20% growth for its company and subsidiaries this year.

Mr Adisorn Thananun-narapool, Senior Executive Vice President of Land & Houses Plc, explained about the company's investment plan that it set aside two billion baht as an investment budget in 2002. All of the budget would come from its operational cash flow. Of the total budget, about 1.5 billion baht would be used to acquire new land plots for future projects in 2003, and the balance of 500 million baht would be injected in a property fund.

L&H has already bought vacant land plots for five new housing projects this year.For the 2002 performance, Mr Adisorn said the company would continue to record a satisfied sales growth. However, the growth of net profit would be better than the sales growth because of following reasons;

1. The gross profit margin is expected to improve further this year because the company will produce pre-built houses in a mass scale and launch a number of new housing estates.
2. Marketing and sales expenses are projected to surge this year but at the lower rate when compared to the sales growth.
3. Interest expenses will continue to reduce further this year.
4. The performance of L&H subsidiaries is forecast to improve this year.