The annual event, which focused on art, children and education this year, aims to promote partnership, philanthropy and participation to help strengthen community bonds.

The funds raised this year will support two beneficiaries – Phra Dabos School under the patronage of King Rama IX and HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn’s initiative, the Child and Youth Development Project in Remote Areas.

Tan Choon Hin, president and chief executive officer of UOB (Thai), who participated in the 4-kilometre fun run, said: “The UOB Heartbeat Run/Walk brings together our colleagues, their families, customers and business partners with the common aim of broadening educational opportunities for less privileged children and youth. I believe that unity and strong commitment to keep the good going will make a significant difference to the lives of others.”

The Heartbeat Run/Walk event was held simultaneously in Thailand, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam, bringing together more than 19,000 volunteers, who raised a total of S$1.58 million (Bt35.77 million) for local charities.

The payment will be by cash at Bt0.054 a share with the total payout not exceeding Bt554.72 million. Payment will be on August 9. It is based on the company’s operating results in the second half of its fiscal year, ending on March 31.

The meeting, on Tuesday, also approved an increase in the company’s registered capital with a general mandate to enable the sale of no more than 428,058,285 shares through a private placement at Bt0.10 each.

The meeting approved a change of company name to VGI Public Company Limited, reflecting its vision of providing “pioneering solutions for tomorrow”.

Funding for the order was helped by a Bt342.4 million from the Import-Export Bank of Thailand (Exim Thailand). The company also plans port expansion works.

Panom Kuansataporn, director and executive chairman of the company’s executive committee, expects to see further growth in the coal business, with some 1 million tons of orders on schedule to be delivered The company’s total revenue is expected to reach Bt9 billion.

Panom said AGE distributes what the company calls high-quality bituminous clean coal, which will create value added for the company’s growth.

“The investment expansion plan in the logistics business will generate positive results to the company’s overall business operation,” Panom said. “The plan also helps increase the revenue proportion with financial strength, stability, and sustainability in the future. We aim for 10 per cent growth in the company’s logistics revenue in 2019 – to around Bt800 million to Bt1 billion of this year’s total revenue of Bt9 billion. This will consist of a 20 per cent contribution from overseas coal sales and 70 per cent from domestic coal sales. We expect this year’s coal sales to reach 4 million tons. While the revenue from the logistics business of sea freight and inland logistics, and the port and warehouse services is accounted for at 10 per cent.”

The planned 16 new ships will have a coal transport capacity of 41,600 tons per trip. The ships are expected to be fully delivered in 2020, raising the fleet size from the current 24 ships.

In addition, the company plans to triple its port capacity. A third port is under development and is expected to be completed by end of 2019 to serve the rising numbers of tow boats.

“The reason that the company has placed this emphasis on investment in logistics businesses is that we see the business opportunity from more integrated services on more than 300 rai in Nakhornluang district, Ayutthaya, where there are coal storage areas and ports that can serve the immense investment expansion,” Panom said. “Thailand is in need of tow boats for goods transport, especially the goods from agricultural products such as soybeans, cassava, and fertiliser, besides the coal trade. This year we expect sea freight imports of those products amounting to around 30 million tons.”

Under the new management structure, Sascha Ricanek, currently chief executive officer of DCVT, will take a new position at the Daimler Trucks Asia headquarters in Kawasaki, Japan, from September 1.

As the CEO of DCVT, he has overseen the growth of its local dealership network, the improved availability of customer service solutions, and the expansion of DCVT’s product portfolio. His expertise in both engineering and business management will support Daimler Trucks Asia’s product line-up strategy in crucial international markets, including Thailand, the company said.

On September 1, Ricanek will be succeeded by Stefano Giordani, currently managing director of Mercedes-Benz Financial Services España (Spain).

Since joining Daimler in 2005, Giordani has developed a solid background in business development, and sales and marketing for financial services as well as trucks and buses in various countries from Europe to Asia. He will bring his keen customer focus to DCVT to further strengthen its presence in Thailand’s fast-growing commercial vehicles sector, the company said.

DCVT was established in August 2016 as the official distributor of Fuso and, since 2018, Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicles. The company is headquartered in the Sathorn area of Bangkok and has a parts distribution centre in the outer Bangkok area.

As an integral part of Daimler Trucks Asia headquartered in Japan and its South East Asia regional centre in Singapore. DCVT offers a product portfolio which includes trucks and buses for the Thailand market.

Under the new agreement, signed by Eugene Kaspersky, CEO of Kaspersky and Interpol’s executive director of Police Service Tim Morris, Kaspersky will provide human resources support, training, and threat intelligence data on the latest cybercriminal activities to Interpol, strengthening the organisation’s cyberthreat hunting capabilities. The agreement signing took place at Interpol World 2019 in Singapore.

This cooperation enhances the existing relationship between the two organisations, ensuring information and technology sharing can support Interpol in cybercrime-related investigations. In addition, Kaspersky will share information with Interpol on its cyberthreat research and provide the necessary tools to assist in full digital forensics, aimed at strengthening efforts on the prevention of cyberattacks.

“With the rise of sophisticated threat actors, collaboration across the ecosystem and the sharing of expertise is more crucial than ever. We are excited to continue the partnership with Interpol and to empower law enforcers with the information and technology needed to combat cybercrime across the globe,” said Kaspersky after the signing ceremony.

Kaspersky recognises the borderless nature of cybercrime and regularly participates in joint operations and cyberthreat investigations with the global IT security community, international organisations such as Interpol, law enforcement agencies and CERTs worldwide.

Being the first among cybersecurity vendors, Kaspersky recently announced an advanced free service for law enforcement agencies, aimed at increasing the awareness of how its services operate and how they can help in the fight against cybercrime and sophisticated cyberthreats.

While they have failed in a number of countries, British supermarket operators have made a profit in Thailand. Tesco made £4.1billion in revenue in Thailand last year, making the country the largest market for it outside the UK, the report by Mirror News said.

Tesco has been established Thailand since 1998. It has now more than 1,500 express shops and about 400 bigger stores along with an online shopping service under the brand Tesco Lotus. The company serves more than 15 million customers every week.

Dave Lewis, the chief executive of Tesco, said: “The economics of the country are very attractive. There is a big emerging middle class. We have been making changes over the past two years but now we have a model we are very pleased with.”

Lewis’s plan will create some 10,000 jobs in Thailand. He said he sees big potential for market growth, as half of the Thai food shopping market consists of traditional markets, street stalls and small family-owned shops.

Tesco’s main competitor in Thailand is Japanese-US convenience store business 7-Eleven, which has thousands of stores in Thailand. It is by CP All.

Of the target for the year, Bt1.3 billion was recovered in the first six months, and is expected to reach Bt1.850 billion in August this year, IAM’s manager, Thongrob Danampai, said.

He added that IAM was confident of meeting this year’s target.

IAM, which is wholly owned by the Finance Ministry, was set up in 2016 under a Cabinet resolution the same year to manage the Islamic Bank’s NPF.

Thongrob added that IAM has capitalised on technologies and competent staff to effectively manage such NPF.

He added that the bank’s existing small and medium-sized clients still needed to expand their businesses and recruit more staff. He said IAM’s role was to help them revive their businesses as soon as possible. “Once they recover, they can contribute to the country’s competitiveness in the future,” he said.

“We believe our sector and stock picks will withstand a certain amount of market volatility given our bottom-up perspective, as each sector/stock provides a clear set of positive factors,” Passakorn Linmaneechote, deputy managing director of Kasikorn Securities, said on Tuesday.

“We expect the new government to immediately implement short-term economic stimulus measures to stimulate consumer spending, through measures such as handing out more welfare cards or issuing subsidies for the agricultural sector,” he added.

Hence, he said, CP All Plc, a leading firm in consumer products, will likely benefit from the boost in consumer spending making CPALL a promising equity to invest in.

“We also continue to keep big banks in our preferred-sector list due to low downside risks and higher probability to exit the non-performing loans [NPL] cycle as it ages,” he said.

A report from Kasikorn Securities stated that from the fourth quarter of last year to the first quarter of this year, the formation of NPLs fell from 2.12 per cent to 2.04 per cent.

“While the pace of a decline in credit costs has been slow, we expect the sector to reduce it further,” Passakorn continued, adding that he recommends Krungthai Bank (KTB) equity for investment in big banks.

“Krungthai Bank’s strong loan growth should be supported by corporate, retail, and government sectors, while it is less affected by a lower fee income given a low base.”

Furthermore, he said, KTB offers an attractive dividend yield, which is expected to be 4 per cent this year.

The industrial-estate sector, he said, also has high potential for growth in 2019.

“The potential relocation of Chinese manufacturers in this region will remain a key performance driver for the sector. The government’s focus on upgrading infrastructure and roadshows promoting Thailand as a key investment destination should also help support the sale of land,” he added.

AMATA is the equity recommended for this sector, because there have been significant inquiries about its estates from Chinese investors. The company has also said it is confident that its 950-rai (152-hectare) sales target for 2019 is achievable.

Passakorn also predicted that the Bank of Thailand (BOT) will maintain its interest rate at 1.75 per cent all this year, because he reckons the Monetary Policy Committee will prefer to focus on financial stability over stimulating the economy through monetary measures.

However, the committee’s statement after their next meeting in July could signal that BOT is willing to reduce its policy rate if the Thai currency continues strengthening and the economy continues slowing down at an alarming rate. He said this statement could also generate a positive reaction in the stock market.

With dovish sentiments voiced by central banks across the world, with some lowering their policy rates, bond prices will rise and yields will drop, leading to more capital flowing into stock markets, including the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), Passakorn added.

He said the SET index could reach 1,775 points in 2019 due to the aforementioned factors.

“Basically we are now focusing on our strengths, which are transactional banking, foreign exchange, risk hedging, capital markets, debt financing solutions, strategic advisory,” Pimolpa Suntichok, Deutsche Bank Thailand’s country officer and general manager, said.

“We’ll exit equity sales and trading globally to release capital usage and allocate more capital to core businesses.”

The reorganisation will refocus the bank around clients to our core strength and invest 13 billion euros (Bt449 billion) by 2022 in technology to drive efficiency and improve products and services.

“DB Thailand will continue to serve clients as normal and clients should rest assured that all the changes globally will give us the best focus to give our clients the best service with sustainable business in the long-term,” Pimolpa said.

The company recently introduced two new products in the skincare and health segments, targeting mass consumers in the Thai market. It expects total revenue to reach Bt1 billion this year and is looking to Bt10 billion in total sales through a major expansion of its overseas business, enhancing the P80 brand in the global market.

Prayudh Mahagitsiri, alias “Mr Nescafe”, chairman of PM Group and Natural Bev Co Ltd, said: “After having succeeded in Nescafe and various other businesses, we wanted to promote an innovative product that would improve the health of Thai people. Driven by the concept of “Money cannot buy good health,” we were in search for health products with measurable benefits and certified by research.

Subsequently, we discovered the “P80 Natural Essence,” a concentrated longan essence drink clinically tested by Chiang Mai University. The P80 Natural Essence helps heal the body internally , improve sleep quality and reduce blood pressure. We then invested more than Bt2 billion in manufacturing facilities , in accordance with the HACCP, GMP, ISO9000 standards, on a 140 rai site, for the production of health products under the P80 brand . We plan to raise awareness of the brand, through the 360 degree marketing strategy.”

Chalermchai Mahagitsiri, chief executive officer, added: “Nowadays, most consumers are more health – conscious and have switched to drinks that benefit the body. There are many health drinks in the market, but only 3-4 key players. Natural Bev has been distributing “P80 Natural Essence” through modern trade channels for several years. With the launch of Natural Bev Network, we have started our network marketing business (MLM) , to make P80 Natural Essence reachable for Thai consumers nationwide”.

The P80 products distributed through modern trade outlets and network marketing channels, will differ clearly in terms of packaging, design and sizes to avoid confusion among consumers.

Natural Bev also recruited superstar “Nadech Kugimiya” as the barnd’s presenter, receiving positive responses in both the modern trade and MLM channels.

Chalermchai added that: “Natural Bev recently organised an event to introduce two new products to MLM members: 1) Skinnic, a beauty product in the skincare segment, targeting mass consumers. aged 30-40 or above, and 2) P80 Boost or “Ready to Drink,” a longan natural extract drink in the health segment, containing various vitamins and ingredients carefully selected from abroad. P80 Boost comes with the concept “Easy to Use, Easy to Grab and Easy to Drink. These two new products cater to the needs of consumers in the mass market . Natural Bev plans to keep rolling out new products”.

This year, Natural Bev has kept its focus on digital development and recruiting more new-generation workers. The company aims to raise business builders’ competitiveness by giving employees quick access to technological tools.

At present, Natural Bev’s members account for 30,000 codes, 10,000 of which are active and are categorised as 65 per cent business leaders and 35 per cent consumers.

The marketing plan of the multi-level marketing business allows consumers to transition themselves into independent distributors. They will be able to generate income and build their own business, in addition to the binary payment system that enables them to work more efficiently.

The company believes the strategy of launching new products, and promoting them to consumers in the mass market, will help simulate sales.

Natural Bev plans to expand its MLM business to countries in the Asia Economic Community where modern trade are prevalent, such as China, Laos, Cambodia and United States.

In Thailand, Natural Bev has established business centres in five provinces ( Nakhon Pathom, Nakhon Ratchasima, Chiang Mai, Chonburi and Ayutthaya) to provide members easy access to its products and services, marketing planning and training.