Sri Panwa Hospitality Real Estate Investment Trust (SRIPANWA), the country's first real estate investment trust (REIT) converted from a property fund, aims to raise its assets under management (AUM) to 10 billion baht in the next five years from 2 billion at present.

SRIPANWA, which will be converted from Sri Panwa Hotel Property Fund (SPWPF), has slated a subscription period for preferential public offering (PPO) for unitholders of SPWPF, whose names are on the book closing date as of Nov 14, on Nov 25, 28 and 29.

It will offer up to 279.06 million trust units, of which 200.18 million trust units will be used to swap with SPWPF at a ratio of 1:1, and 78.88 million will be allocated to SPWPF's unit holders at a ratio of 2.5378 SPWPF units for every one trust unit of SRIPANWA at 10.80 baht each.

The leftover trust units will be offered to sponsor patrons and connected persons, institutional investors and the underwriter's patrons, on Nov 30, Dec 1 and Dec 2.

Proceeds arising from the trust unit offering will be used to finance acquisition a two-building hotel with 30 rooms and a three-storey luxury resort home in Sri Panwa Hotel in Phuket, worth 1.3 billion baht, said Veena Lertnimitr, executive vice-president for primary distribution at Siam Commercial Bank.

SPWPF now owns 38 luxurious pool villas, and 7 pool suite east units in Sri Panwa Hotel.

"High-end hotel industry still has robust growth and it has been unscratched by the global economic slowdown. Majority of tourists are from China, Thailand, Europe and the US," said Vorasit Issara, chairman of Charn Issara REIT Management Co Ltd.

Charn Issara REIT Management is SRIPANWA's settler and REIT manager.

He said that SRIPANWA is also looking at investing in luxury hotel projects in Phetchaburi province's Cha-am district and Phangnga province, with values of around 1 billion baht each.

The REIT is also looking into hospitality assets abroad including the UK, Italy and other European countries as prices are quite cheap at the moment.