He added that its portfolio of loans to real-estate sector, which stands at Bt30 billion at present, is expected to expand 10 per cent this year.

Sammit explained that there has been low growth in new loans given to the real-estate sector, due mainly to a slow down in the development of new projects in response to a slowing economy and a supply glut in the market. However, he said, some developers still sought loans to purchase land for projects they plan to introduce in the next two years.

He added that tapping major developers means KKP’s loan portfolio is healthy given that the borrowers are financially stable and can repay. has continued to grow thanks to its focus on major real-estate players, especially those listed in the stock exchange, Sammit Sakulwira, the bank’s first executive vice president and head of commercial lending group, said.

The campaign “KKC Khongkwan Clinic 13 Years Anniversary” will be organised under the theme “Reborn, Rebody, Rebeauty” to showcase its “holistic beauty innovation”.

The clinic expects to form a partnership with new investors who have a similar business philosophy.

The beauty clinic is confident in the purchasing power of women of all ages, transgenders and men who are beauty-conscious , and plans to target more high-end customers.

Khongkwan Clinic said it has enjoyed 15-20 per cent business growth so far and expects to end the fourth quarter of 2019 with 25 per cent growth in net profit despite stronger competition.

Dr Khongkwan Fujitnirun, CEO of Khongkwan Clinic, said beauty treatment is a specific business with the focus on service, reputation and understanding. “As changes evolve every day, we adjust and grow our business via many marketing channels from online, customer referral, to free coupons to customers. Moreover, we use new innovations and technologies with safety and quality guarantees from overseas to satisfy our patients.”

“We are aware of the fake medicine issue. Khongkwan Clinic has invested more money to develop its own innovations. We are not confined to only botox fillers, laser or thread lifting, but also in developing holistic treatments combined with anti-ageing,” Khongkwan said.

She said the investment to develop holistic innovations with a foreign partner wrre in the negotiation stage.

“We can say that several equipment and materials are imported from the world’s best sources in US and Germany. Khongkwan Clinic has plans to open new clinics under new brands in three cities in China — Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. We are also eyeing Indonesia,” Khongkwan said.

Khongkwan said they now have 17 clinics in Thailand and Laos. This year, Khongkwan Clinic is speeding up to form partnership with foreigners in order to get innovations. “The partnership will help us grow and have more services and Khongkwan Clinic will become an integrated medical beauty clinic for surgery, aseptic, anti-ageing, plastic surgery and cell therapy, which is the newest technology from the US and Germany under negotiation. The clinic expansion will be made to targe the high-end segment.”

Khongkwan expects the clinic to be among the top five beauty clinics in Thailand.

He added that most of the programme content partnership contracts between MCOT’s Family Channel 14 and its partners had already expired on June 30 this year.

After the closure of the Family channel, MCOT would still run one channel, the high-definition Channel 30.

In May this year, six broadcasters informed the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) of their intention to hand back the seven licences they had secured from the NBTC. May 10 was the deadline for broadcasters to declare their intention.

The six broadcasters are: Spring News Television Co Ltd (for Spring News Channel 19) and Nation Multimedia Group (for Spring 26, formerly NOW26). The others are Bright TV (Channel 20), Voice TV (Channel 21), MCOT (Family Channel 14) and BEC Multimedia (Family Channel 13 and 3SD Channel 28).

Spring 26, Spring News and Bright TV shut down their channels at midnight on August 15. Voice TV was switched off at midnight on August 31.

BEC Channel 28 and Channel 13 leave the airwaves at midnight on September 30.

All these channels get compensation from the NBTC after they are shut down.

After their exits, there will be 15 channels left in the crowded market.

The NBTC awarded 24 commercial digital TV licences via auction in December 2013, raising around Bt50.862 billion in bid payments. Their 15-year licences were good from April 25, 2014. However, the broadcasters found it difficult to survive due to unfavourable market conditions, coupled with brutal competition from formidable online media channels.

The success was a reflection of the company’s strong commitment to implementing its sustainability vision and policies, and enhancing people’s lives through digital solutions, AIS said.

AIS has been selected as a member of the DJSI family for 2019, both in the World Index and Emerging Market Index in the telecommunication services sector.

AIS chief executive Somchai Lertsutiwong said that it was an honour that AIS was named a member of DJSI for 2019, an internationally acclaimed benchmark index for business with sustainable development practices.

“As a leading digital life service provider in Thailand, AIS has utilised its strengths and fundamental infrastructure through innovative, trusted, eco-friendly and responsible digital products and services to enhance the quality of Thai lives and to meet customers demand,” Somchai said. “This will lead to new knowledge and inspiration and also to produce positive and sustainable returns for all stakeholders, which will lead to sustainable growth for Thailand,” he added.

Somchai said the achievement had become possible because of the efforts of the whole organisation towards corporate sustainability development. “We have constantly put our efforts on sustainable development to drive sustainable organisational structure, and being in line with the DJSI international standards benchmark.”

The DJSI is a set of internationally recognised indices of companies with outstanding sustainability performance, which is created jointly by S&P Dow Jones Indices and RobecoSAM as a global sustainability benchmark. It tracks the stock performance of the companies in terms of economic, environmental and social criteria. It is selected from 3,500 companies in the financial markets, who are invited to participate in the corporate sustainability assessment. All DJSI-certified companies tend to deliver sustainable returns to investors.

The trade war between the United States and China and the appreciation of the baht against other currencies have started to impact large corporates, say bankers.

Although large corporates are resilient to any impact and their ability to repay debt remained sound compared with small and medium-sized enterprises, the prolonged trade war had started to impact revenue and sales of large corporates, said Wasin Saiyawan, senior executive vice president and chief of wholesale banking at Siam Commercial Bank.

Also, the depreciation of the Chinese yuan against the baht had reduced exports to China for some corporates. This had  led to a year-on-year decline in income for these corporates, he said. So the bank has to take care of clients to ensure their ability to repay debts would not be affected.

He did not expect growth in lending to large clients. Currently outstanding loans to large corporates stand at Bt900 billion, according to Wasin. Bad debts or non-performing loans (NPLs) account for 1 per cent of total loans and the bank would try to prevent it rising over 2 per cent, he added.

Senathip Sripaipan, chief wholesale banking officer at TMB Bank, said that some large corporates have delayed investments, especially in overseas projects, because of the impact of the slow growth of the global economy and the ongoing trade war.

The bank is worried about large agri-business firms. The bank has not yet seen signs of debt default or rising bad debt. “But we have to closely monitor them,” he added.

Payong Srivanich, president and CEO of Krungthai Bank, said that some big businesses have started to cut their capacity utilisation from full utilisation to about 70 per cent. Some property developers have also delayed their investments in new projects, he added.

Pornchai Padmindra, co-head for wholesale banking and head of corporate banking and investment banking at CIMB Thailand, said that the trade war and the global slowdown had some impact on large firms.

Some of them have started to relocate their production base to avoid the impact of tariff hikes. “Big corporates could export their products to new markets,” he added.

Group Lease issued a bond to Thai institutional investors of Bt1.5 billion on September 29, 2016 with a three-year term maturing on September 29, 2019. On Friday, Group Lease redeemed the bond early and repaid the amount in full.

Tatsuya Konoshita, the CEO of Group Lease Public Co Ltd, said in the release, “We decided to repay the bond early to save some interest expense and because we knew we needed to repay this month. I heard that some in the market doubted that GL would be able to make this payment, but like I said during our presentation last month about our second quarter result, we had more than Bt4.3 billion in consolidated cash and our financial position is strong.

“We had no problem repaying our bondholders and we are happy to meet our financial obligations. In the history of GL, we have never missed or been late with a payment to our creditors.”

Konoshita also thanked the Central Bankruptcy Court of Thailand for last month dismissing the bankruptcy claim against the company. “We are happy they came to the conclusion we have the ability to repay our creditors and they made it possible for us to legally repay our creditors. Today, GL made good on the Court’s judgement and we repaid our Thai debenture holders early and in full. We always want to maintain our good business relationships and look forward to continuing to create and maintain good relationships with the Thai market.”

Konoshita said the company had worked for two years to increase their operational efficiency and improve their ability to target good customers.

“We have already begun to take action and conduct small test pilots and the results have been promising. We will start to apply it at a larger scale very soon. We are now more bullish about Thailand and look forward to becoming more active in the Thai market,” said the CEO.

“We appreciate our creditors for the trust they have shown in our business over these few years. We are happy we were able to reward them with timely and full repayment.”

This partnership marks an important milestone for both Disney Thailand and Shopee, as they elevate the online shopping experience for both Disney fans and Shopee users. The partnership also reflects Shopee’s commitment to expanding its product offerings for new parents under Toys, Kids & Babies, one of Shopee’s top categories. With the launch of the Disney Funtastic Bazaar, shoppers can confidently purchase licensed merchandise from beloved brands like Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars on Shopee. An extensive variety of toys, clothing, accessories and bedding will be available through the new campaign.

Preecha Archamongkol, Director of Consumer Products Commercialization – Thailand of The Walt Disney (Thailand) said: “Embracing the global philosophy of ‘Magical Moments’, The Walt Disney is determined to deliver enjoyment and finest entertainment experiences to fans around the world. Heart-touching content and a wide variety of characters are our strengths and ensure our strong connection with followers in every possible territory through both online and offline platforms. Disney Thailand is pleased to be collaborating with Shopee to launch the Disney Funtastic Bazaar campaign through which fans of Disney and Shopee of all ages will be able to experience magical moments with this first-ever e-commerce platform that features our licensed merchandise from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars.”

“We are confident that with Shopee’s marketing and operational support such as Shopee Live Chat and Shopee Guarantee, we can provide shoppers an easy and seamless online shopping experience for fans.” he added.

Ms. Agatha Soh, Head of Marketing, Shopee Thailand said, “We are excited to partner Disney as its first e-commerce partner to bring this campaign online in Thailand. We understand that some shoppers can be conservative when it comes to buying their children toys and clothing online, as they prefer to see how the actual product works and looks. To cater to this, we will be hosting an exclusive Shopee Live session with Disney to provide shoppers with a closer look at popular merchandise. Our partnership demonstrates our commitment to provide the best solutions for our partners to help them achieve their marketing and sales objectives.”

With more than 500 inventories from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars, shoppers can expect a wide assortment of products from a wide variety of brands. This includes clothing and accessories brands such as Cool Planet and Josilins, toys from Ocean Toys and Toytopia, electronics from Logikk, Focus and Rizz, beauty products from USTAR and Cute Press, as well as bedding and accessories brands such as Kleenex and TOTO.

The Disney Funtastic Bazaar will be exclusively available on Shopee from September 16 to 30.

Investments in global infrastructure will yield higher returns than investment in Thailand’s property stocks, Paul Gambles, director and chief investment officer at MBMG Investment Advisory, told The Nation.

Asset World Corporation (AWC), Thailand’s leading integrated lifestyle real-estate group, plans to launch an initial public offering of 8 billion shares. The upcoming IPO of AWC made the headlines in local business newspapers, partly because one of its largest shareholders is Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, a Thai billionaire whose net wealth is estimated to be Bt505 billion.

AWC’s IPO is priced at Bt6 per share and will be made available to the public between September 25 and 27. The shares will be traded in the stock market early next month.

The company’s market capitalisation through the IPO is expected to be worth Bt192 billion – the largest in the history of the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), exceeding PTT’s market capitalisation of Bt97 billion when it debuted IPOs 18 years ago.

AWC’s price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) is extremely high at 277.6 times, with some analysts saying the P/E is not appropriate enough to justify valuation in this case.

Gambles agreed with other analysts, saying the P/E may not be the right tool to gauge the valuation. He said the yields in this case should be compared with the yield of fixed asset bonds. If you look at yield stocks like REITs (real-estate investment trusts) or infrastructure, then they may have more in common with fixed interest rather than with growth stocks, he noted.

He also added that in general, yields in Thailand are currently at an all-time low. “So, if you look at the P/E of AWC, then maybe you can explain part of the reason why the price seems to be so high,” he said. “Should we look AWC in terms of a yield play like a bond? Property trusts tend to behave more like bonds because they pay out most of their earnings.

“I haven’t followed AWC, but I know that I can get a 3.4 per cent yield in US dollar on global infrastructure, so that seems a better deal to me,” Gambles said.

AWC plans to use Bt48 billion of funds raised for future acquisition, reinvesting in existing assets, enriching working capital and paying debt as its debt-to-equity ratio is high at 2.5 times.

The Online-to-Offline event (O2O) of  fashion, food, and concerts  attracted more than 100,000 customers, underscoring the success of  Lazada’s Shoppertainment strategy.

Jack Zhang, Deputy CEO of Lazada Thailand, said  “The Lazada 9.9 Big Discovery Sale this year made history with overwhelming feedback from shoppers across Thailand. The success well reflected Lazada’s leading position in Thailand’s eCommerce landscape. The platform was able to fulfil all customer needs through the breadth of sale assortment from brands and sellers, exclusive promotions such as 9 Million Deals and 9 Million Vouchers, and special discounts as high as 90 per cent. Furthermore, Lazada offers safe and secure payment solutions as well as an efficient logistic system which is well trusted by Thai consumers”.

Statistics from this year’s edition of Lazada 9.9 Big Discovery Sale showed that mobile phone was the best-selling product category. The platform recorded more than 20,000 units sold  in the one-day sale event. Other best-selling products included diaper and smart TV.

Key statistics:

• Brands on LazMall were able to boost their sales by 37 times on average when compared to sales during    the general period.

• The first parcel was delivered to a customer at 07.24 am on September 9, 2019.

• The number of facial masks sold during the one-day event can be used daily for next 35 years.

• The number of lipsticks sold within can be used for more than 4,000 years.

• All iPhoneX offered as special gifts were redeemed by customers within 4 minutes.

“The Lazada 9.9 Big Discovery Sale offered customers not only just online shopping experience but new experiences with all sensations through the Online-to-Offline (O2O) event that features LOL Market, LOL Canteen, and Lazada 9.9 Big Discovery Sale Concert. Recognised as the biggest O2O event for eCommerce to connect with Thai customers, it attracted more than 100,000 shoppers. Under the Shoppertainment strategy, the event was able to meet the needs of customers aged between 18-24 years old, which also underscored Lazada’s strength towards becoming a lifestyle destination,” added Jack Zhang.

Of the newly-opened restaurants, half will be under Shabushi brand.

Paisarn Aowsathaporn, executive vice president – food division at Oishi Group, said that the group was working on opening outlets in both Laos and Cambodia.

“Currently, we have two Shabushi restaurants in Yangon, Myanmar. We have already approached our candidate in Laos and plan to open our first Shabushi restaurant in March 2020,” he said.

Paisarn said that Oishi Group earned Bt5.386 billion from its food business in the first nine months of 2019 fiscal year, up Bt533 million or 11 per cent over the same period of the last fiscal year. Key driving factors are new restaurants and organic growth from its existing restaurants.

“We are also in the stage of developing new business models, such as Desert Café, which is targeted to open next year. We are also redesigning our existing restaurant businesses, categorizing into different formats, such as small model, outside-of-mall model, and food park concept,” said Paisarn.

As at September 30, 2018, Oishi Group and its subsidiaries operated a total restaurant number of up to 252 stores under nine different brands, of which 250 domestic stores are operating in Bangkok and the provinces, and two overseas stores in Myanmar.

Paisarn said that the group has opened up 26 new restaurants in its fiscal year 2019, comprising 18 Shabushi restaurants, 2 Eaterium restaurants, two Oishi Ramen, and four Kakashi.

“For our business strategy, we will focus on organic growth as well as new store expansion, which will focus on Shabushi brand,” he said.

He added that for this year, online delivery has accounted for 25 per cent of the group’s total transactions on its food business. However, it hopes the contribution from online delivery will reach 50 per cent in the next couple years.