Bankers and regulators sought to reassure investors yesterday that the financial system is strong after comments by Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej raised doubts about bank stability.
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
The board of TOT said yesterday that it would abide by the Central Administrative Court order to open negotiations on interconnection rates with DTAC but insisted that the old access charge regime was still valid.
MONEY EXPO 2008
Economic growth for Thailand will exceed 6% this year with the help of higher government spending and investment, according to Finance Minister Surapong Suebwonglee.
Padaeng Industry Plc (PDI), the country's largest zinc miner, has received a new licence from the Industry Ministry to resume zinc mining, which it suspended last October when its old licence expired.
PULP & PAPER
Siam Cement Group (SCG), the country's largest industrial conglomerate, will seek concessions for eucalyptus forestation in Laos and Cambodia to secure raw material supplies for its paper business. Poramate Larnroogroj, managing director of Siam Forestry Co, an affiliate of SCG Paper, said the company had started growing eucalyptus in pilot areas in the two countries.
FINANCIAL REGULATION
The Bank for International Settlement will ensure that countries are consistent in complying with the Basel II capital accord, according to Jose Maria Roldan, chairman of the Accord Implementation Group (AIG). The Bank of Thailand plans to upgrade to the Basel II standard by the beginning of 2009. The central bank is currently hosting a two-day meeting of the AIG's sub-committee and International Liaison Group on Capital, which ends today.
CORPORATE Counsellor
When Jane's father, Tom, died in a traffic accident in Thailand, she found that not only had she lost her father, but she might also lose a large chunk of her inheritance.
MONEY EXPO 2008
While blue-chip stocks such as PTT Plc, Siam Cement and Bangkok Bank regularly dominate the most-active trading lists on the Stock Exchange of Thailand, investors would do well to consider the bargains offered from smaller-cap stocks on the market. Pichai Lertsupongkit, a senior vice-president of Thanachart Securities, said small-cap stocks typically represented high-growth companies that were mostly ignored by foreign investors.
MONEY EXPO 2008
A weak US dollar and rising global inflation have more than doubled gold prices from last year.
COMMODITIES: IMPACT ON BUSINESSES AND CONSUMERS
Local rice prices are expected to be volatile for the foreseeable future, despite gains in the world market after a cyclone in Burma flooded 5,000 square kilometres of farmland, and Malaysia began imports from Thailand.
COMMODITIES: IMPACT ON BUSINESSES AND CONSUMERS
Food processors have urged the government to allow them access to the country's sugar export quota, which is five baht a kilogramme cheaper than the domestic quota to prevent price rises. Processors have been severely affected by the sudden five-baht increase in domestic sugar prices that the cabinet approved two weeks ago, said Santi Vilassakdanont, the chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI).
AGRIBUSINESS
WARSAW : S. Khonkaen Food Industry Plc, a major producer of Thai-style sausages and dried, shredded pork, is considering setting up a factory in Poland in a bid to expand sales in the European Union and address increasingly tough food standards in that region. ''The European Union is a new market for processed pork products and it is a big market,'' said Charoen Rujirasopon, the SET-listed company's chief executive officer. ''We are ready to invest at least 50 million baht in the future, if our sales in this region are proven big enough.''
RETAILING
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) need to improve their packaging and extend shelf life to be able to compete with well-known brands and win space in modern retail outlets, says a local supermarket executive. Customers at the Tops supermarket chain looked for premium products with high standards or innovative items with modern packaging, said Chiranun Poopat, senior vice-president of Central Food Retail Co Ltd, the supermarket's operator.
Loxley Plc, the trading firm better known for its high-technology, communications and construction businesses, is in talks with foreign partners to help expand their food businesses, including a Japanese restaurant chain in Thailand. The move is part of Loxley Group's policy to enhance its consumer network and support the group's future expansion.
AVIATION
Carriers in Asia, including Thai Airways International, appear cool to the US planemaker Boeing's sales drive for its next-generation jumbo jet, the B747-8, which has attracted more freight operators than passenger airliners. Boeing Commercial Airplane is in talks with up to 10 airlines around the world, mostly those based in Asia, to sell the passenger model of the aircraft to add to its only buyer, Germany's Lufthansa, said Boeing's vice-president for marketing, Randy Tinseth.
OFFICE FURNITURE
The listed office furniture manufacturer Rockworth Plc (ROCK) plans to add new factories in India and the Middle East with an investment of about 400 million baht each to further tap the international market, president Chaiyong Pongsuthimanus said yesterday. He said factory expansion would benefit the company and give it more competitive prices overseas.
ECONOMY BEER MARKET
Thai Asia Pacific Brewery Co (TAPB), the brewer of Heineken beer, is hoping that its low-cost Cheers beer will have cheerful sales, doubling to 600 million baht over the next two years. However, the target is still less than 1% of the economy beer segment valued at about 88 billion baht.
AUTOMOBILES
Nissan plans to add the low-cost Tiida to its model lineup to compete directly with Toyota's Vios and Yaris and Honda's City and Jazz, the market leaders in small subcompact cars. Siam Nissan Automobile Co, Nissan's local distributor, hopes the budget Tiida, to be priced slightly above 500,000 baht, would help lift its car sales this year.
AUTOMOBILES
Honda has begun work on its Asia-Oceania regional automobile research and development centre in Thailand, aiming to make the country a regional automotive R&D hub. The new facilities, costing 1.7 billion baht, would be handled by the newly formed company, Honda R&D Asia Pacific Co.
COSMETICS
The manufacturer and distributor of Oriental Princess beauty products expects sales will rise by 14% to 2.1 billion baht this year, according to Pasana Intratip. the CEO of OP Natural Products Co. Confidence is underlined by better-than-expected first-quarter sales of 634 million baht, well above the target of 520 million baht.
