News Releases

NATURAL PARK INVESTS IN FINANSA FOR STRONG FUNDAMENTAL GROWTH

Bangkok, 29 June 2004 – Natural Park Public Company Limited has purchased additional 18.5 million ordinary shares, at Baht 40 per share, from Finansa Public Company Limited, with a total investment of Baht 740 million. This, together with its existing 4 million shares, makes Natural Park a major shareholder in Finansa, holding 18.75 % of its shares.

Mr. Sermsin Samalapa, President and CEO of Natural Park Public Company Limited said that “This investment is in accordance with the Company’s strategy, which can be divided into two major approaches.

First, horizontal integration, is the expansion of the Company’s existing products or services to new markets or to other regions. This approach is seen in the Company’s investment in Sansiri Public Company Limited (SIRI), which is engaged in the business of residential development, both condominiums and single houses, and in Pacific Assets Public Company Limited (PA), which specializes in the hotel business. Moreover, the Company has also made investment in Bangkok Metro Company Limited (BMCL), which operates the underground electrical mass transit system.

The second approach is vertical integration, which is expansion of the Company’s operation towards other businesses in the value chain. This is the approach conceived by Michael E. Porter, a world-renowned strategist from Harvard University. The idea is to gain competitive advantage by separating the business system into a series of activities in order to understand costs and ways to create added value of that particular business.”

A firm’s value chain model starts from suppliers who provide raw materials for production, to lending sources of investment, and then to the internal management process to create value in the next stage, before delivery to customers in the final stage. Each activity on the value chain creates added value to the product and service to be delivered to the customers.

For the real estate business, the value chain starts from funds allocation to real estate development, construction, and finally to provision of service. With respect to vertical integration, Natural Park has invested in Syntec Construction Public Company Limited (SYNTEC), which is engaged in integrated construction businesses, and in the service business such as investment in a famous French Restaurant, Le Notre. Investment in Finansa, a company engaged in comprehensive financial businesses, is vertical integration that further completes Natural Park’s value chain.