Nguyen Thi Thuy Binh, Thai Vietjet chief, said: “It is our greatest pleasure to extend New Year greetings to the people of Thailand. I hope this Songkran provides all Thais with the opportunity to spend valued time with families and friends and to look forward to a prosperous and healthy New Year.

“Thai Vietjet is honoured to have the opportunity to be a part of the happiness this New Year. Let us all enjoy Songkran with big smiles, joy and may each day enable all your wishes come true.”

Thai Vietjet sponsoring the popular Bangkok Songkran festival celebrations from April April 13 to 15 at Central World in Bangkok.

Mini concerts by Ae Jirakorn, Kangsom Tanatat, Peck (Zeal band) and Tony Pee will take place on selected flights from April 17 to 20.

The Architect ’18 at Impact Challenger 2 will be the first public unveiling of the “multi-comfort” experience by Saint Gobain. It is hailed as a new way of designing building, helping to maximise the sense of wellbeing where people live, work and play. This is the first time that Gyproc has joined forces with Weber to host a booth at the event. The cooperation says it brings innovative solutions in response to challenges of growth management, energy efficiency and environmental protection.

FamilyMart president ​Chiranun Poopat said: “As a Thai-Japanese convenience store, we still place importance on conserving our traditions and the authentic ways of life. We continuously offer several Thai food menus for the consumers to experience the real, original recipes and indulge in Thai culture even more.

“With the Thai nationalism trend at the moment, young people start to consume Thai food and products along with travel more within Thailand. We believe that FamilyMart is able to support all the customer needs 24/7 with the pre-cooked meals, drinks and many other household products.

“During Songkran, employees in Ayutthaya are wearing colourful costumes to create a fun atmosphere, promote Thai nationalism and welcome both Thai and foreign tourists who visit this historic city.”

The president added: ”For Songkran this year, to promote the unique culture of Thailand, we are presenting pre-cooked meals in original Thai style both for meat dishes and desserts such as rice wrapped in lotus leaves, pad Thai with fried chicken and sesame crab-fried rice. We also adapted Thai original recipes into our desserts and drinks like Foy Thong chiffon roll cake, raisin Foy Thong sandwiches, Foy Thong omelette, mango cake, mango jelly, mango juice, Thai tea milk, choco Thai tea, espresso Thai tea from coffee arigato, juice and fresh fruits.

“For Songkran celebrations we have Thai-scented water, white clay, water guns, fancy water buckets and waterproof bags. We believe that we will be another resting spot for customers who are celebrating Songkran.”

​Customers spending more than TB40 can redeem vouchers on 30 products until April 28 at every store.

The awards from Euromoney magazine followed a 2018 “private banking” survey of leading international financial institutions worldwide to recognise professional excellence.

Jirawat Supornpaibul, head of KBank’s private banking business group accepted the two awards.

Customers can place orders from today through April 22 at http://www.dtac.co.th. The phones arrive in dtac stores on April 27.

The other assets acquisitions at the project relate to land, a hotel and a retail cube building, as well as sculptures and other artwork.

Aiyawatt said the company decided to buy the assets at the project after management saw the business opportunities arising from an expansion of its tourism business when the building is completed before the end of the year,

“We plan to open our new duty-free shop at MahaNakhon, which will be known as King PowerMahaNakhon under a name change when the project is completed,” he said.

“This will be a new landmark for tourists – our target market – that is expected attract more than one million visitors a year.”

The company is also considering buying 53 residential units of Ritz-Carton MahaNakhon, which is part of the MahaNakhon project, he said.

“We took about two months in the negotiations with Pace before we were able to conclude the deal,” Aiyawatt said. “We believe this is a win-win for both sides, as we gain a new business and Pace gets capital to operate its business.”

Pace yesterday said the deal is in line with the company’s earlier plan of putting the MahaNakhon asset into a real estate investment trust (REIT). Pace would now focus on reducing debts, as well as speeding up construction of current residential developments to secure a steady revenue stream, it said in a press statement.

Parts of the proceeds from the assets sale would be used to expand the company’s delicatessen chain Dean & DeLuca at home and abroad, the company said yesterday.

Its board of directors considered the transaction most beneficial to the company and its shareholders, Pace chief executive officer Sorapoj Techakraisri said.

He said the Bt14 billion asset disposal had officially taken place on April 10, under resolutions at a board meeting on March 28.

The deal to sell a portion of the assets in the development is consistent with Pace’s earlier plan to put MahaNakhon into a REIT upon project completion. The closing of the transaction at this time has allowed the company to reorganise revenue promptly.

The company plans to use revenue from this transaction, as well as the Bt3.894 billion gained from a capital increase after a share sale in February, for financial restructuring and debt repayments.

This would strengthen the company’s financial position, it said.

The added liquidity will also enable the company to build current businesses more efficiently and sustainably over the longer term.

Pace recorded total debt of Bt30.16 billion, against total assets of Bt32.42 billion, at the end of 2017. It reported total revenue of Bt9.27 billion and net profit of Bt171.12 million for that year.

The company had sought to sell the 53 residential units at Ritz-Carton MahaNakhon and the Nimit Langsuan condominium project to listed property firm Sansiri Plc in the last quarter of last year, but the deal could not be completed, the company reported to the Stock Exchange of Thailand earlier.

MahaNakhon a mixed-use project with an investment value of Bt22 billion.

The project combines hotel, residential, and retail operations. Construction began in 2014.

He said the full opening of the Green Line southern extension in December this year would not only boost operation and maintenance (O&M) revenue by 30 per cent from the previous year, but feed passengers into the core transport network. The combined railway network under BTS will rise to 48.9 kilometres and 43 stations from 38.1 kilometres and 35 stations currently, by March 2019.

Kavin said that this year would mark a milestone for BTS that has long been anticipated by shareholders, investors and patrons.

“The developments that the company expects this year will be a catalyst for a multi-year period of unprecedented growth for BTS,” he said.

“This growth not only pertains to our mass transit business, but also to our complementary businesses in media and property that are poised to extract additional layers of value from the rollout of new mass transit lines it’s secured.”

BTS’ mass transit business will recognise several channels of growth such as Bt20 billion and Bt25 billion in expected revenue from the construction of the Pink (Min Buri-Khae Rai) and Yellow lines (Lat Phrao-Samrong). The two lines, operated by BTS, and developed together with Sino-Thai Engineering & Construction Plc (STEC) and Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding Plc (RATCH), which were awarded the concessions for both lines in June 2017. Additional income of Bt7 to Bt9 billion is expected from the procurement of trains for the Green Line extensions as well as electrical and mechanical (E&M) system installation services for the new Green Line southern and northern (Mo Chit-Khu Khot) extensions. BTS also expects to recognise interest income of Bt600 to Bt700 million related to the procurement of trains for the Green Line extensions and the construction of the Pink and Yellow lines.

The number of passengers on what the company calls its core network is expected to grow by 4-5 per cent from the previous year. Within the first 11 months of the 2017-18 financial year, the BTS network served 220.3 million passengers, with an average of 743,027 on weekdays. Organic growth on the network will be further boosted by the official launch of the entirety of the Green Line’s 12.6-kilometre southern extension from Bearing to Samut Prakan.

The nine stations of the Southern extension are expected to be officially opened in December 2018 and will significantly supplement revenue to BTS and feed passengers into BTS’ network in the last quarter of 2018-19. Growth in passenger numbers on the core network continues to be fuelled by property development along mass transit stations, worsening road congestion and urbanisation in Greater Bangkok and adjacent provinces, Kavin said. Total O&M revenue is targeted to soar by 30 per cent from the previous year largely from the full operation of the Green Line Southern extension.

For the first nine months of fiscal 2017-18 (from April 1 to December 31, 2017; the fiscal year ended on March 31), the company announced total revenue of Bt11.8 billion and net profit Bt1.94 billion.

BTS’ media business under VGI Global Media Plc (VGI) will continue to aggressively expand its out-of-home media (OOH) presence, the company said. VGI is also poised to benefit from the ongoing economic recovery and emerging synergies with Rabbit Group through online-to-offline (O2O) media.

Kavin said that following a slew of acquisitions, VGI is now a comprehensive media solutions provider that is better able to respond to the contemporary lifestyles of consumers and offer more targeted advertising on behalf of its clients. Media revenue in 2018-19 is targeted to reach up to Bt4.6 billion. VGI targets an earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) margin of 40-45 per cent and net profit margin of 20-25 per cent.

This year the majority of the property business of BTS was transferred to an associate company, U City PCL (U City). U City is the designated property development vehicle for BTS Group. U City has undergone restructuring and significant expansion following acquisitions of a hotel business in Europe and office buildings in the United Kingdom. U City expects to record revenues of Bt6 billion and Bt7 billion this year, with an EBITDA margin of at least 25 per cent.

The total expected capital expenditure (CAPEX) is estimated at between Bt27 billion and Bt34 billion this year. More than 90 per cent of the amount – or between Bt26 billion and Bt32 billion – is earmarked for investments in the mass transit lines. Of the balance, Bt1.1 billion and Bt400 million will be allocated to support growth in the media and property businesses, respectively.

“Though our CAPEX outlay is considerable, we’ve been preparing for this moment for several years,” Kavin said. “BTS has considerable and adequate capacity to finance these investments through a multitude of options. We expect to continue to simultaneously pay competitive, regular dividends vis-a-vis our SET 50 Index peers to reward shareholders for their trust and support.”

    The investment makes SCB the first bank in Southeast Asia to actively engage with quantum technology and its applications in financial services.

The bank’s first executive vice president and chief strategy officer Arak Sutivong said that SCB’s investment in 1QBit reflects the strategic importance its place on learning from bleeding-edge technologies that could have vast and profound impact on a variety of industries, including financial services.

“In the near term, we expect our investment in 1QBit and quantum and quantum-inspired computing to have tangible influence on our business through advancements in portfolio optimisation, wealth management, risk management, and cyber security. Over the long term, quantum computing forms a core part of SCB’s investment strategy to identify fundamental technologies with the potential to reshape our industry from the ground up.” said Arak.