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Bangchak pours big bucks into overseas lithium mines to make batteries for cellphones, EVs

CorporateNov 13. 2020

By THE NATION

Bangchak Corporation Plc has diverted 18.5 per cent of its investment budget to foreign lithium mines with the aim to make battery for electric vehicles (EVs) and mobile telephones, the company’s president and chief executive officer, Chaiwat Kovavisarach, said.

“The mines are now under construction in Argentina and Nevada, United States, while the factories to produce pure lithium should be finished by the year-end,” he said.

“The investment will give Bangchak the right to buy high-quality lithium at 6,000 tonne per year, which is enough to produce 3kW/hour batteries for 150,000 EVs, or batteries for 200 million mobile phones.”

Chaiwat added that Bangchak was also planning to sign MoUs with a European battery manufacturer and Chinese partners to develop lithium-related industries that serve the need of Thailand.

“In the early phase of this project, we plan to establish a battery factory in Europe with an investment of $200-300 million within 2024, in accordance with our prediction that battery technology would start to stabilise during 2023-24 in terms of charging time, durability and power output,” he said. “We also expect that by 2025, Europe would manufacture 3-4 million EVs, while Thailand would produce 750,000 vehicles by 2030.

“Also, by 2024 there should be a single standard EV battery announced which every manufacturer must follow, which will cause the EV battery market to expand even faster,” he added.

“We will need to see higher domestic demand for electric vehicles in order to establish a factory to produce lithium ion batteries in Thailand,” added Chaiwat.

“The government needs to promote the use of electric-powered public vehicles, starting from taxi motorcycles. Banchak estimates that Thailand would see 2 million new motorcycles per year, and if these were to be electric-powered it would significantly increase domestic demand for batteries. Then, we should expand the coverage to public buses and minibuses by building charging stations along their routes.

“We should learn from China, which has tackled its air pollution problem by substituting gas-powered motorcycles with electric ones in big cities, then expanded to cars and trucks,” added Chaiwat. “As a result, their pollution situation has gradually improved while their battery industry has also expanded rapidly.”

“Lithium ion battery is eco-friendly as it can be fully recycled or used as electricity storage in power stations when its efficiency drops to 70 per cent. It will help generate battery recycling business and other battery related businesses,” he added.

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DoorDash, Wish and Affirm join Airbnb to fuel year-end IPO boom

CorporateNov 13. 2020Sun shines outside of the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York on Nov. 9, 2020. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Michael Nagle. 

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Crystal Tse, Katie Roof · BUSINESS, US-GLOBAL-MARKETS 
As Airbnb Inc. prepares for its long-awaited Nasdaq debut, other consumer-facing technology companies are joining the going-public party, which had been dominated so far this year by enterprise software listings.

Food-delivery service DoorDash Inc., online discount retailer Wish Inc. and installment loans provider Affirm Inc. could join Airbnb in making their financials public in the next few weeks, according to people familiar with their plans. All would seek to hold their IPOs before the end of 2020, the people said.

That would add billions of dollars to the record total of more than $140 billion raised on U.S. exchanges this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That includes special purpose acquisition companies, or SPACs, which have reached all-time highs, the data show.

IPO advisers are expecting to see a record amount of listing activity during the period between the U.S. Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Companies that sat out the market chaos during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic are now rushing to go public, after also waiting for the result of the U.S election before making their move.

Airbnb will seek to raise about $3 billion in its IPO, people with knowledge of its plans have said, making it the largest of the four. The home rental company had intended to make its IPO filing public on Thursday, but decided to wait until next week to avoid its news being overshadowed by the aftermath of the U.S. election, Bloomberg News reported.

The public filing — or flipping — of listing documents marks an important milestone in the IPO process, giving investors their first full look at a company’s finances as well as details of its operations and ownership. Fifteen days after a prospectus becomes public, a company can begin taking investor orders for shares in the IPO.

San Francisco-based DoorDash is racing ahead with its plans after it helped pass a California ballot proposition that allows it and other gig economy companies to treat drivers and delivery workers as independent contractors rather than employees. The company, which said in February that it had confidentially filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an IPO, could flip its listing plans as soon as this week, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Online retailer Wish filed confidentially in late August for a listing and is likely to reveal its prospectus within two weeks, people familiar with its plans said. The Milpitas, California-based company, a sponsor of the National Basketball Association’s Los Angeles Lakers, was last valued at $11.2 billion in August 2019, a statement at the time showed.

A public filing from Affirm, which lets online shoppers pay in installments, could also be imminent, said people with knowledge of the matter. The Mountain View, California-based company said in October that it had filed with the SEC confidentially.

Investors won’t have to wait much longer to see the stock market debut of video game platform Roblox Corp., last privately valued at $4 billion. The San Mateo, California-based company said in October it had submitted confidential paperwork.

Timing for all the listings could change and discussions about valuations of the companies are ongoing, the people said. Representatives for Doordash, Affirm and Wish declined to comment.

The incoming wave of consumer technology listings follows a rush of enterprise software companies that came to market in September, when seven software makers, including Snowflake Inc., Unity Software Inc., Asana Inc. and Palantir Technologies Inc., went public.

The tech IPO boom is likely to keep rolling into 2021. Grocery startup Instacart Inc., which hit a valuation of $17.7 billion in an October funding round, could list next year, as could $10 billion software maker UiPath Inc. Used-clothing platforms Poshmark and ThredUp Inc. have each filed confidentially for a listing, while online mortgage lender Better.com has tapped banks to help it go public in 2021. Dating app Bumble is also preparing an IPO for early next year, which could value it at $6 billion to $8 billion.

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Disney’s profits plummet as coronavirus keeps its core businesses flailing

CorporateNov 13. 2020

By The Washington Post · Steven Zeitchik · BUSINESS 
A year ago this month Disney was riding high as it revealed it had racked up nearly $70 billion in revenue and $15 billion in operating income for fiscal 2019 while also celebrating the launch of Disney Plus.

On Thursday, the company announced darker news for 2020: amid the coronavirus, it saw operating income drop 45% for the year to just $8.1 billion, and a whopping 82% for the fourth quarter to just $600 million. Once taxes are factored in, the company lost $700 million during the quarter, which encompassed the July-September period.

The company has been battered by the pandemic, which has kept it from attracting large numbers to its theme parks and from opening new movies in theaters. Both realms are usually very popular in the summer.

Disney did disclose that it now had 73 million global subscribers to Disney Plus, making the streaming service a juggernaut in its first 12 months of operation. And there were other silver linings: Revenue for the quarter of $14.7 billion were higher than analysts’ forecasts of around $14 billion, while its loss per share was about 20 cents compared to expectations of 70 cents.

But the revenue figure was still down 23% compared to 2019. And once all expenses and taxes are included, the company lost about $700 million in the quarter after running in the black many previous summers (in 2019, it took in nearly $800 million once expenses and taxes were factored in).

In response to the challenges, the company has sought to tighten its belt. It laid off 300 workers from ESPN earlier this week and has also drastically pared down the number of employees at theme parks.

Disney Plus has been a platform for a number of social media hits, including “The Mandalorian,” whose new season came out last month. The company is aiming to release at least one piece of major content each quarter, with the Pixar original “Soul” coming in December. On Thursday, Disney announced “WandaVision,” the service’s first Marvel series, will be released on the platform in January.

But Disney Plus’ success is tempered by the investment costs associated with it. A MoffettNathanson report says the division could lose $2 billion each this year and next; Disney had acknowledged it won’t be profitable until 2024.

The company also did not reveal numbers for “Mulan,” which cost Plus subscribers $30 to watch. Disney Chief Executive Bob Chapek said the experiment was successful enough in the company’s eyes that it could well be repeated with other movies.

“We saw enough very positive results,” he said, “to know we’ve got something here in terms of the premiere access strategy. He added, “What we’ve learned from Mulan is there will be a role for it strategically with our portfolio of offerings.”

Disney has been battered by a host of coronavirus factors, including the closure of movie theaters in many states, forcing it to shift much of its movies to 2021. Disneyland remains closed as California Gov. Gavin Newsom has maintained strict reopening requirements. Walt Disney World in Florida is open, but executives have acknowledged business has been slower than anticipated.

Chapek attempted to put a good spin on the news. “Even with the disruption caused by COVID-19, we’ve been able to effectively manage our businesses while also taking bold, deliberate steps to position our company for greater long-term growth,” he said in a statement.

But in a call, he also acknowledged the difficulties in theme parks and pointed the finger at Newsom.

“We are extremely disappointed that the state of California continues to keep our theme parks closed despite our proven track record,” he said, as he referred to re-openings in Florida and Asia. “We believe state leadership should look objectively at what we’ve achieved. . .as opposed to setting an arbitrary standard.”

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Minor suffers major loss of Bt5.59bn in third quarter

CorporateNov 13. 2020

By The Nation

Minor International (MINT) has recorded a third-quarter net loss of Bt5.59 billion, down 223 per cent from the same period last year as Covid-19 took a big toll on the hospitality giant.

MINT’s third-quarter revenue was Bt14.88 billion, down 50 per cent year on year, while the company’s net loss in the first nine months was Bt15.81 billion, down 328 per cent from the same period last year.

MINT’s chief financial officer Brian James Delaney predicted the company’s performance would improve over the fourth quarter and into next year as its post-Covid business plan kicks into gear.

“We expect MINT’s performance to move into positive territory by next year on hopes of a Covid-19 vaccine and the company’s asset-circulating strategy,” he said.

“Meanwhile, the company will continue to manage expenses to maintain liquidity while seeking opportunities to generate revenue amid unexpected crises.”

He added that MINT’s third-quarter revenue had doubled from the previous quarter after the company’s hotels, restaurants and retail businesses were able to reopen following the easing of lockdown restrictions.