Published on  04/11/2010
Banks offer help to industrial estates Grace periods, longer loan maturity planned Three large local banks are offering special financial packages to the Bangkadi Industrial Estate for business rehabilitation, and similar help will be proposed to six other inundated estates. Kasikornbank will provide extra financial assistance to customers of the estate on a case-by-case basis, said first senior vice-president Songpol Cheevapanyaroj after a meeting with executives of Bangkadi yesterday. Assistance includes a grace period for repayments, an extension of loan maturity and expanding short-term working capital. He said the bank would cooperate with the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and the International Finance Corp (ICF) and its partners at Japanese financial institutions in providing financial assistance. Four of KBank's 19 Japanese banking partners have proposed recovery packages to help ease the financial burden of customers. "Business operators in Bangkadi Industrial Estate largely are Japanese investors in the auto parts and electronics sectors. Japanese banks would provide them financial support in cooperation with KBank, and we are ready to help other affected clients as well," said Mr Songpol. Besides corporate customers, KBank's extra financial packages also cover small and medium-sized enterprises that supply large companies, and retail clients who are employees of the corporate firms. For individual customers, the bank offers a 36-month
personal loan programme offering no interest for the first three months and a grace period on principal for three months. Bangkok Bank and Siam Commercial Bank also proposed financial packages to support affected businesses in the industrial estate. Sarut Ruttanaporn, first executive vice-president at SCB, said it would propose more packages to the other inundated industrial estates. Credit lines for large companies with annual turnover of 500 million baht in the seven inundated industrial estates total around 7 billion baht. SCB largely provides fee-based financial services such as payroll and cash management to customers rather than loans. He said the bank's financial support would also be extended on a case-by-case basis. He added that affected clients want to prolong loan terms and grace periods rather than add credits. Â