Somjate finds himself in a sticky situation

Thai Asset Management Corp. chief Somjate Moosirilert is watching his portfolio fall apart. The hot, wet Thai climate has been eroding the steel superstructures of the unfinished and abandoned skyscrapers that make up most of state-run TAMC’s property holdings.

But from his office on the 22nd floor of the Exim Bank building in downtown Bangkok, Thai Asset Management Corp. chief Somjate Moosirilert is watching his portfolio fall apart. The hot, wet Thai climate has been eroding the steel superstructures of the unfinished and abandoned skyscrapers that make up most of state-run TAMC’s property holdings.

If Somjate, whose agency is charged with cleaning up what’s left of Thailand’s $10 billion in nonperforming loans, can’t figure out how to dispose of the forlorn monuments to prefinancial crisis exuberance, Thai humidity will do it for him.

Rusting real estate is only the most visible of Somjate’s problems. This private sectortrained official -- he spent two decades as a brokerage exec for National Finance -- finds himself toiling in a classic government bureaucracy.

“What I told my people here on day one is that our working style must be on a private sector basis,” says Somjate. “However, since we are state-owned, we have to comply with the rules and regulations,” which require painstaking documentation of every action, large or small.

TAMC has critics on every side. Some charge that the agency is giving too easy a ride to the powerful families that hold much of Thailand’s wealth -- and own many of the most debt-choked businesses -- by permitting them to remain in control. Others say Somjate isn’t doing enough to revive those same businesses and spur growth. Yet another faction contends that he is doing too little, period. Resolving the debt mess, Somjate guardedly notes, “is controversial in Thailand.”

Right now the hundreds of stalled buildings outside Somjate’s office represent his biggest headache: Roughly three quarters of his agency’s remaining assets are real estate.

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“We have to come up with some strategy to bring in expertise from the private sector,” he says. One option: setting up a company to manage the properties and offer stock to creditors. Concedes Somjate, “There are still a lot of question marks.”

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