by Dr. Iain
Corness
The
CEO of Raimon Land PLC, the developers of the Northshore Condominium, is a
laid back Englishman Nigel Cornick. He is a man who turned around a
company that owed 6 billion baht into one with now a paid up capital of
1.1 billion baht in five years. He describes his career as being in a
fascinating business, saying “Real Estate is my hobby. I really do enjoy
it.” Anyone who can find 7 billion baht in five years out of their
“hobby” has to be interesting!
Nigel was born in Dorset in the UK. His father was an
accountant for an engineering firm, while mother stayed at home to look
after the children.
He left school at 16 years of age, with no idea what he
wanted to do, so his father indentured him as an apprentice in his
company.
Nigel may not have known what he wanted to do, but he
did know what he didn’t want to do - and that was engineering! After one
year he left. He looked around and saw only two options, with the one he
chose being a junior in a real estate firm. He described it as “I
started at the end of a surveyor’s tape in Dorset.”
With an eye to the future, he began study at night, so
that he could get his own surveyor’s tape, eventually becoming qualified
as a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. However, he had
larger plans than the uncharted fields of Dorset, and took a job with IBM
in Saudi Arabia. His function was in real estate management, looking after
a residential portfolio, assessing the needs of the incoming expats, some
of whom could be very demanding. “I was born with the patience of a
saint,” said Nigel.
However, after five and a half years, perhaps the
patience was wearing thin and he took himself off to Australia to join his
younger brother in Sydney, who was working there as a teacher. Sydney held
no fascination for him, so he moved north in the great sun-burned land,
arriving in Brisbane, the capital of Queensland.
Like all Brisbanites, the weekends are spent at the
closest seaside resort and this was the famous Gold Coast (like Pattaya is
to Bangkok). “I drove down and saw the fabulous beaches with the hi-rise
buildings there and I loved it. That was it. I settled there.”
He stayed three years, working in a Japanese property
development company, but after three years got itchy feet and retraced the
highway back to Brisbane, working with a large corporation that was
involved in refurbishing older properties and moving them up the ladder of
desirability. This was an interesting time in his life, with some of the
projects involving ridding a building of asbestos, a particularly
difficult and painstaking task. He was also involved with development of
the Riverside Centre, an up-market retail area in the city, overlooking
the river, one of whose tenants was Colliers International.
This serendipitous meeting was to culminate in his
being offered the job of opening an office for Colliers-Jardine in
Bangkok. This was a city he had visited once for a conference in 1987, and
he knew very little about it, but it was a challenge that looked
interesting.
Over the next few years, he built up the business in
Thailand, and even looked at diversification into Vietnam, “But it was
too difficult to do business there,” said Nigel.
In 1996, he moved again. This time to Raimon Land. “I
stumbled across Raimon Land,” was the way he described it. “I had met
the CEO whose family had interests in many companies, and they needed a
general manager.” It was a company that was involved in low to mid-range
residential housing and factories, plus tracts of land destined for
housing developments. It seemed sound, as did many entrepreneurial
companies in 1996, riding the crest of the boom wave.
Then came 1997, the baht fell (crashed is a better
description). “Overnight we doubled our debt. Our projects ceased as the
56 finance companies closed down. Some of the banks put their heads in the
sand and wished it would all go away. From 1997-2000 it was just a matter
of survival.”
But survive he (and Raimon Land) did. The creditors
wanted to see what could be salvaged, and he received their backing, and
was appointed as the planner for the restructuring. Nigel put together a
rehabilitation plan that was accepted in 2000 and he became the plan
administrator. He found new investors and worked on re-capitalization for
the company.
I asked Nigel how he managed to cope in what must have
been very trying times. “Restructuring debt was something I never
thought I would be involved in. The key ability was to be able to liaise
between the creditors and the banks. It can be a very frustrating
exercise,” said Nigel, making light of a very difficult period.
I suggested that there must have been difficult
decisions to be made, but Nigel said, “Real estate isn’t rocket
science. If you have a good team a lot of the headaches are settled.” He
also never felt like just turning his back on Thailand and bailing out.
“I didn’t want to leave. I enjoy being here.”
Having turned the company around, now in the black to
the tune of 1.1 billion baht paid up, Nigel is now looking at what he
began eight years previously. One of the first projects was the Raimon
Tower, and taking on board two overseas partners (from Holland and
Singapore) he redeveloped this into The Lakes, a residential condominium
which sold out in five days.
Another of the emerging projects is the Northshore
Condominium on Soi 5 Pattaya, through which Nigel wants to show that
Raimon Land is a leader in property development in this country, in giving
value for money.
It is a competitive world in real estate, but Nigel Cornick has shown
that he has got what it takes.
