Thai builder seeks debt relief after two deadly crane accidents
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At least 32 people were killed in the crane crash over a section of the China-backed high-speed rail network in Thailand.
PHOTO: EPA
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BANGKOK – A Thai construction company under investigation over its role in two fatal crane crashes
Italian-Thai Development will hold an online meeting with bondholders at 2pm in Bangkok (3pm Singapore time) on Jan 16 to request an extension of the maturity of five series of notes by three years as part of a broader restructuring effort.
The efforts come a day after the Thai government ordered the nation’s largest construction company by revenue to suspend work at more than a dozen infrastructure projects.
Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said on Jan 15 his government would terminate Italian-Thai’s contracts of projects where the crane accidents occurred.
However, Italian-Thai said the contracts to build a section of the China-backed high-speed rail network in north-eastern Thailand, where a crane crash killed at least 32 people
The crane crash on the expressway on Jan 15 killed two people, sparking a public outcry and calls from political parties for action against the company.
Italian-Thai, founded in 1958 by Thai national Chaijudh Karnasuta and Italian Giorgio Berlingieri, is grappling with a liquidity crunch that has forced it to offload its overseas investments, including a cement business in India and a mining unit in Thailand.
The contractor has racked up losses of about 13 billion baht (S$534 million) from 2020 to 2024 as it took on engineering projects, including in India, Taiwan and Myanmar, where imposition of military rule led to delays and write-downs.
Italian-Thai president Premchai Karnasuta was among more than 20 individuals and related parties, to be indicted by the Thai prosecutors for their links to the collapse of a partly finished government building in Bangkok that killed 89 workers following an earthquake in March.
Italian-Thai posted net income of 7.4 billion baht in the first nine months of 2025, boosted by gains from the sale of an overseas unit, even as revenue from construction continued to slump.
The company’s shares tumbled 10 per cent in Bangkok, extending declines in 2026 to 27 per cent. A sustained sell-off in Italian-Thai’s shares has seen its market value shrink to about one billion baht from 12 billion baht in 2021. BLOOMBERG
