Land and Houses Public Company Limited

Kasikorn Securities recommends buying shares of Land and Houses Public Company Limited, or LH, with a target price of 4.33 baht, after the company informed the Stock Exchange of Thailand on 13 August of the appointment of Mr. Achawin Asavabhokin as the new executive chairman, replacing Mr. Naphorn Sunthornchitcharoen, who will retire on 31 December 2026. Mr. Achawin will assume the position on 1 January 2027. The company also appointed Mr. Wit Tantawanwong as chairman of the board, replacing Mr. Naphorn in another role. The research team views this as slightly positive, as the change in top management is expected to mark the beginning of improvements in management style, strategy, and overall operating targets, which is important in a highly competitive market. Mr. Achawin currently serves as managing director, a position he has held since 1 January 2026, and previously was deputy managing director and chief financial officer of LH. The research team sees LH shares as attractive for an earnings recovery expected from the fourth quarter of 2026 onward, supported by the start of ownership transfers for the large condominium project One Bangkok Chao Phraya, worth 15 billion baht, of which 57% has been sold, the opening of the Grand Centre Point Voyage Pattaya hotel, and asset sales in Thailand and the United States. Factors that could support a re-rating of the stock include increased market confidence in the recovery of the residential business, especially from major developers, as well as LH's new business plans and strategies under the new executive chairman.

Land and Houses Securities, or LH Fund, is preparing to offer the LHAI-INFRA fund between 30 July and 5 August 2026. The fund will invest in units of the foreign mutual fund Tortoise AI Infrastructure ETF, averaging at least 80 percent of net asset value over the accounting year. The master fund is actively managed and aims to invest in stocks across the artificial intelligence infrastructure value chain, from energy, power systems, data centers, and cooling systems to servers, memory, storage, and networks, as well as data center developers and AI cloud providers. The fund's key strength is diversifying away from chip stocks and large-cap technology stocks into industrials, utilities, energy, and data center operators, which are essential infrastructure for the transition from the AI training era to AI inference and widespread real-world application.

Land and Houses Bank, or LH Bank, has confirmed that news reports concerning Mr. Anant Asavabhokin have no impact on its management or business direction, as Mr. Anant has not been involved in the bank's management for a long time. The shareholding structure is held through Land and Houses Public Company Limited, which holds a 30% stake in LH Financial Group, or LHFG. For this year's strategy, the bank still targets total loan growth of 10 to 12%, focusing on SME loans, retail loans, and home loans, while expanding its International Business, which is expected to grow by about 50%, driven by foreign direct investment, especially from high-tech industries in China and Taiwan relocating production bases to Thailand. In the first half of the year, the bank expanded its International Business by 27%, with main customers being entrepreneurs in electronic components, AI, and electronic circuit board industries. Many projects have completed factory construction and are entering production and export phases, leading to continued growth in demand for financial services such as international business loans, foreign exchange transactions, and trade finance. Fee income continues to be supported by financial transactions, sales of mutual funds investing in foreign technology sectors, and bancassurance. Meanwhile, income from foreign exchange transactions is also boosted by the expanding base of import and export customers amid baht volatility. For net interest margin, or NIM, the bank expects the policy interest rate to remain stable throughout the year and will continue to manage financial costs while increasing the proportion of high-yield loans to improve NIM in the second half, particularly in SME and retail loans. Regarding asset quality, the non-performing loan ratio, or NPL, stands at 2.56%, a slight increase due to pressure in the SME segment affected by economic conditions and higher operating costs. However, the bank expects provisioning in the second half to remain at a similar level or decline slightly after careful loan portfolio management. In addition, LH Bank targets sustainable loan issuance of 6 billion baht this year, having already achieved about 5.8 billion baht, and sets a long-term goal to increase the sustainable loan portfolio to 30 billion baht within five years to support businesses investing in machinery efficiency and greenhouse gas emission reduction. To support SMEs, the bank uses the FLY program to analyze industry potential for faster loan approvals, along with credit guarantee mechanisms from the Thai Credit Guarantee Corporation, or TCG, to help manage risk and increase access to funding for small entrepreneurs. As for the baht direction in the third quarter, the bank assesses that it may weaken due to high oil prices, the low tourism season, and the interest rate differential between Thailand and the United States. However, the baht is expected to strengthen towards the end of the year, supported by the high tourism season and stronger economic activity.

Phillip Securities expects the Thai stock index to trade sideways in a range of 1,640 to 1,665 points, pressured by a 2026 forward P/E of 16.7 times, close to the average since 2020 of 17.1 times, and banking stocks may face sell-on-fact pressure after earnings announcements. However, the TISA project measures will help prevent the index from falling deeply, and a rotation of funds out of banking stocks into real sector stocks is expected for speculation on second-quarter 2026 earnings, which are anticipated to be strong. The investment strategy is divided into four main themes: speculation on second-quarter 2026 earnings in stocks such as AMATA, CPALL, DELTA, HANA, ITC, KCE, MRDIY, MTC, OSP, QH, SAWAD, SCC, STECON, and TIDLOR; energy stocks in BCP, PTT, PTTEP, SPRC, and TOP; speculation on government measures or projects in BJC, CENTEL, CK, CPAXT, CRC, DOHOME, ERW, GLOBAL, HMPRO, LH, MINT, and SCC; and hopes for investment inflows from China in ADVANC, GUNKUL, GULF, ROJNA, WHA, and WHAUP.