The operator ferried 112 million passengers during the first nine months of 2017, with Cambodia’s three international airports handling a total of 6.3 million passengers, a 25.7 per cent increase compared with the same period last year. Meanwhile, passenger growth in Portugal grew by 17.7 per cent followed by Chile at 10.9 per cent.

Cambodia Airports’ strong growth was attributed to the arrival of new carriers and routes including the launch of an Emirates Airlines flight from Dubai in July, according to Vinci. The report added that passenger growth at Phnom Penh International Airport rose 24.5 per cent during the period, with Siem Reap International Airport increasing 21.8 per cent. Sihanoukville International Airport grew by 162 per cent, albeit from a low base.

Cambodia Airports Communication director Khek Norinda said yesterday that the growth in passengers coming to the Kingdom was due the country’s solid economic growth and increased connectivity.

“There are opportunities and more room for growth in the aviation market as demand for air travel worldwide and in particular in the Asia-Pacific region keeps on increasing,” he said.

Cheav Kirirom, airline production manager for JC International Airlines, a newcomer that launched operations in March of this year, said that the aviation sector has continued to support economic and tourism growth from both international and domestic passengers.

“The aviation market is growing fast and there is a lot of demand, which is why there are a lot of airline companies investing in Cambodia,” he said.

At least five new passenger airlines are preparing to launch Cambodia-based operations within the next year, up from the current level of seven, a fact that Kirirom acknowledged could be problematic.

“It will be challenging to compete with other low-cost carriers, but we have our own strategy for the market,” he said, adding that JC had recently launched new flights to China as well as South Korea.

In a presentation before the Shareholders Association of the Philippines (SharePHIL) on Monday, PSE president Ramon Monzon mentioned the possibility of forming a tie-up with SZSE to establish a cross-border trading linkage or “Shenzhen Connect.”

Monzon said he was pursuing this tie-up because he was particularly interested in boosting the flow of Chinese investments into the local stock market.

Part of the prospective tie-up is for SZSE to acquire shares in the PSE but this should be no more than 5 per cent as mandated by local securities law as the ownership cap for any single investor in a local bourse, Monzon said.

After the SharePHIL forum, Monzon said talks with SZSE were “very preliminary” but he noted that since 2009, the PSE has had a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with SZSE to create a trading linkage.

“Now we want a more concrete partnership with them,” Monzon said. “I’m trying to convince them to subscribe to our follow-on offering because I’d like them to be a shareholder.” The proposed trading linkage may take some time but the prospective equity investment may happen first, he added.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas will also have to be involved in the creation of Shenzhen Connect to iron out cross-border payment and settlement issues, Monzon said.

Established in 1990, SZSE is a self-regulated legal entity under the supervision of the China Securities Regulatory Commission. Since 2000, SZSE has signed MOUs with 30 major stock exchanges and financial institutions in the world and enhanced cross-border cooperation and communications.

According to data from the Association of Indonesian Automotive Manufacturers (Gaikindo), car sales in the January-September period grew by 2.72 per cent year-on-year (yoy) to 804,167 units, lower than the 3.79 percent yoy growth from January to August.

However, the higher sales in August was likely supported by the Gaikindo International Auto Show (GIIAS), during which around 21,000 cars were sold.

There was no such an event in September. The low-cost and green cars (LCGC) segment, meanwhile, saw a 13.5 percent yoy increase in sales to 179,768 units from January to September.

The LCGC segment accounted for 22.35 per cent of total cars sold in the period, higher than the 20.23 percent share during the same period last year

A review of the Kuala Lumpur-based discounter’s fleet requirements is under way and could result in a plan to trade up to the bigger widebody, Tony Fernandes, chief executive officer of the AirAsia group, said in an interview yesterday, adding that the Boeing Co 787 Dreamliner will also be considered.

AirAsia X will remain focused on routes within four to eight hours’ flying time and would deploy the A350s on those services just as it had aimed to do with the A330s, Fernandes said, adding that a switch wouldn’t indicate a revival of plans to serve Europe.

For Airbus, an order would shrink the 212plane A330neo backlog while bolstering an A350 programme that has itself suffered recent setbacks.

“Over the last 10 years we’ve been tweaking the model,” the CEO said. “Now that we kind of know what we want to do, we’re looking at the fleet. We’re toying with the A350. If we went A350, we wouldn’t use the A330neo anymore, we’d go all A350.”

The move would mark an about face from previous plans. In 2015, the Malaysian operator began looking at flipping the ten A350s due for delivery from 2021 to A330neos, with the unit’s chief Benyamin Ismail saying the smaller jet was cheaper and just as economical.

While an order rethink could be lucrative for Airbus, with the A350900 having a sticker price of US$311.2mil versus US$290.6mil for the A330neo, the switch would come as a complication given the airline’s status as a launch customer for the plane.

Fernandes said the first jet is due in December 2018, though the date is “slipping” after already being put back amid development issues with RollsRoyce Holdings Plc’s Trent 7000 engine. The company will send representatives to the model’s first flight, scheduled for Oct 18 in Toulouse, he said.

AirAsia X is also exploring the business case for adding Airbus A321neos to serve routes to India and China that might not support bigger planes, Fernandes said. The main AirAsia shorthaul operation already has orders for more |than 400 upgraded Airbus narrowbodies, including 100 A321 variants.

The Indonesian government will distribute 35 million seeds and seedlings of main commodities such as cacao, coffee and rubber to small-scale growers.

The Agriculture Ministry’s plantation director general, Bambang, said his office had distributed 25 per cent of them.

“The seeds and seedlings had been prepared since last year,” Bambang said in Jakarta, as reported by kompas.com.

Bambang was speaking at a press conference for the World Plantation Conference and Exhibition 2017 in Jakarta.

He said the funds for the 35 million seeds and seedlings had been allocated in the 2017 state budget to improve plantations nationwide.

With the distribution of the seeds/seedlings, the growers are expected to be able to increase their production, Bambang said.

Previously, Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution stressed the importance of the seed distribution to increase productivity and improve the quality of life of growers.

In the 2017 state budget, the government allocated Rp 2.4 trillion (US$178 million) for the program in the 2017 state budget. The allocation will be increased to Rp 5.5 trillion next year. – The Jakarta Post

Cambodia bond market guide to spur interest

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia (SECC) says it will publish an updated Cambodia Bond Market Guide by the end of this year, with the hope that it will raise public awareness for the new financial tool that received a formal regulatory framework in August.

The announcement came as members of the SECC met with experts from the Asia Development Bank yesterday for a workshop meant to prepare Cambodian companies for the first issuance of a corporate bond.

Sok Dara, deputy director of SECC, said that the guide will be an important asset for firms and investors to learn about the financial tool. The guidebook will focus on teaching companies how to monitor the market as well as outlining the terms and conditions for bond issuance.

Stakeholders in the market can take this guidebook and use it as a fundamental tool that will pave the way for investors, companies and other parties to learn more about this new market mechanism,” he said, adding that the document, once completed, will be publicly available on the SECC website. – The Phnom Penh Post

Axiata-Telekom re-merger seen boosting valuations

A potential re-merger in Malaysia between Axiata Group and Telekom Malaysia TM could reduce the valuation differential with Axiata’s peers, says AmInvestment Research.

The research firm has maintained its Buy call on Axiata with unchanged forecasts and a sum-of-parts-based fair value of RM 6.30 a share.

Axiata has been approved as one of the five participants in Indonesia’s 2300MHz spectrum auction. The Indonesian government is auctioning 2 x 5mHz blocks of 2100MHz and a 30MHz block of 2300MHz.

AmInvestment Research notes that while XL Axiata has no need for additional 2100MHz spectrum, it has indicated interest in the 2300MHz band for the “right” price.

“Assuming a 20-year amortisation charge and a final successful bid price which is 20 per cent above the reserve price, “it said.

“We view Axiata’s struggles in regaining forward momentum in subscribers and ARPUs in Malaysia and regionally as underpinning the need for the group’s re-merger catalyst with TM. – The Star

With airports around the world embarking on aggressive expansion and development plans, the fund will help Changi invest in this growth and establish a strong foothold in other markets, Changi Airport Group (CAG) chairman Liew Mun Leong told The Straits Times.

The potential is huge, he |said. “We see a lot of airports |that need not just funding, but expertise. It’s an infrastructure business that is very promising given the growth of the aviation industry.”

In the last decade, Changi’s foreign investment and consultancy arm, Changi Airports International (CAI), has snared many airport consultancy and development projects in growing aviation markets including China, India, Russia, Brazil, Latin America and the Middle East. From King Fahd International Airport in Saudi Arabia to Italy’s Rome Fiumicino Airport to China’s Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport, CAI has left its mark on over 50 airports in more than 20 countries.

But the returns have not been significant, industry analysts said.

While revenue grew from S$18.5 million in the 2012/2013 financial year to S$41 million in the 2015/2016 financial year, high operating costs, including taxes, in an already capital-intensive industry, as well as foreign exchange losses, have put pressure on profits, which fell to just S$6 million during the same period.

By comparison, CAG reported after-tax profits of more than S$780 million in the same year.

Things to pick up soon

But with the new fund, things should start to pick up for CAI, Liew said. “Now that we have more (funds) we can do more,” |he said, adding that before this, there were constraints on how funds should be spent. “The Government said ‘we give you money to build Changi Airport, why are you building in Saudi Arabia and Brazil?’ Now we |have external funding,” Liew added.

Besides Changi Airport, Malaysia Airports, Germany’s Fraport, Schiphol in the Netherlands and Turkey’s TAV are among the airports that are also keen to spread their wings overseas.

In an annual roundup, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said last week that total passenger traffic grew by 7 per cent last year compared with 2015.

The Asia-Pacific accounted for 35 per cent of the total market, growing 11.3 per cent year on year, while traffic in the Middle East was 9.1 per cent higher. Both are key target regions for CAI, which has a 75 per cent stake in King Abdulaziz International Airport in Saudi Arabia – its biggest investment to date.

On whether there are concerns that CAI’s efforts to help other airports build and operate better could eventually impact Changi’s competitiveness, Liew said: “People ask me this and I tell them that it’s not a zero-sum game.”

Working with airports globally gives the Changi team a better understanding of industry dynamics and challenges, he said.

“We know (first-hand) what’s happening in Brazil, Abu Dhabi, China, India, because we are there, working with them. We see how they operate, how they are growing, the challenges they face,” Liew said, adding that such experiences provide invaluable lessons for the Singapore team.

Such ventures also provide a good opportunity for Changi to work directly with airlines based in overseas markets to promote air links and services to and from Singapore, Liew said.

“At the end of the day, if we can mobilise the competency and expertise of Changi Airport – the best airport in the world – we can make a lot of money,” he said.