Issue 26

The Senior Executive Vice President of Pylon talks to Horizon Thailand about the nature of the Kingdom’s construction industry.

Can you provide us with some background about Pylon?
A: We set up in 2002 and listed [on the Thai Stock Exchange] in 2005. This is our ninth or tenth year on the stock market. We specialise in foundation construction, including piling, grouting, and constructing diaphragm walls. We also have a subsidiary to do general construction. Last year our turnover was about 1.3 billion baht.

What distinguishes Pylon from other construction companies?
Since we set up the company we had the aim to be listed on the stock market. We spent seven or eight months to get listed. Since then we have focused on the team, on how to produce the best quality work, how to serve the client. We didn’t focus on how much revenue we wanted to make, what percentage our growth in five years or seven years would be. We didn’t focus like that. We wanted to get the best team, the best system and then, once the opportunity comes, we could show our performance. If you don’t have a good foundation, the whole building can collapse. That is how we make our reputation.

You recently received the best under the Billion Award from Forbes, can you explain more about that?
Forbes Asia selected the best 200 companies in Asia out of 20,000 listed companies, I think. This year there were nine Thai companies and we were one of them. They look at the performance for the past five years, the continuing growth of the company, the debt to equity ratio, etc. We are the smallest company out of the nine.

Are your clients mainly Thai?
About 90 to 95% of our work is for Thai investors, but we also serve foreign investors that work in Thailand.

How do you maintain your standards?
We have set up our QC [quality control] team, who help monitoring quality issues. Also we have set up the safety team to focus on safety issues. These two teams will help maintain the standard of safety and quality.

What are the strengths of the Thai construction industry?
We are fast learners. Fifteen years ago when we first built the MRT system, we used joint ventures with foreign players, but right now they are all local. They learn once, they know how to do it.

What are the opportunities and challenges of the AEC?
For the Thai market there will be more players coming in. We have noticed some Malaysian companies looking at our market, some Singaporean companies too. But also it is an opportunity for Thai people to go out.

What are your plans for the future?
We plan to increase our capacity by about 15%. Also, we are looking at alternative investments. Analysts and other investors, their comments about us are that we are very conservative. Since we set up the company we have never met a loss. We try to be careful for any situation.