The project for the aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) centre at U-Tapao International Airport is being led by the national carrier, which will operate the facility in a joint venture with a yet-to-be selected aircraft manufacturer.

Planned to open in 2022, the so-called MRO Campus is billed as a world-class facility that will further entrench Thailand’s standing as an aviation hub in the region and help propel the development of the flagship economic zone that hosts it.

Ronnachai Wongchaoum, vice president of the TG MRO Campus Project Office Department at Thai Airways International Plc (THAI), said the airline expected to submit the feasibility study for the project to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha by this month or the next. Prayut, who chairs the Eastern Economic Corridor Management Committee, would decide whether to approve the project in principle.

“We want to develop the No 1, world-class MRO centre, which will be the best in terms of on-time and on cost considerations, as well as on quality,” Ronnachai said.

Occupying a 210-rai plot, the MRO Campus will require investment of about Bt11 billion, with Bt7 billion earmarked for construction and the rest for equipment. The design work is scheduled to start from June and will take about one year, before construction can begin.

The MRO Campus will be owned and invested in by the Royal Thai Navy under a right granted by the Treasury Department. The campus will be operated by THAI and the joint venture partner under a leasing contract of 50 years.

The MRO Campus will open officially in June or July 2022, and employ between 500 and 800 workers, including technicians. The maintenance centre will have a capacity to handle between 50 and 80 heavy maintenance events annually.

The centre’s payback period will be between five and 10 years when annual income is forecast to reach Bt3 billion. The MRO Campus’ annual income from aircraft maintenance services is expected to exceed Bt22 billion within the next 50 years. U-Tapao airport itself is expected to attract an increasing number of visitors, jumping from around 30 million a year now to 60 million in the next five years.

“We (THAI) have already approached the biggest of the two major aircraft manufacturers to become our joint venture partner in the MRO Campus project in U-Tapao,” Ronnachai said.

“We have got a positive response from a European company that is looking for a prime location in Southeast Asia to set up a maintenance, repair and overhaul centre. For us, we would like to have technology transfers and customers from the aircraft maker.”

“We need to find an aircraft manufacturer as our joint venture partner so as to benefit from the transfer of maintenance technology and management know-how.”

Ronnachai said the envisaged 50:50 joint venture agreement between THAI and the plane maker that will emerge as its partner in the MRO Campus project is expected to be signed by the end of this year.

He said that the aircraft maintenance business in the Asia-Pacific region shows strong growth potential, driven by an increasing number of aircraft in the region, including those being operated by the major airlines.

There are about 20,000 aircraft in operation globally and the number will increase to 35,000 within the next 20 years, according to predictions from the big major aircraft manufacturers.

“There are also 6,139 aircraft being operated in the Asia Pacific, including China. In the next 20 years, 14,276 new aircraft will be added into the region,” Ronnachai said.

“Meanwhile, about 3,438 existing aircraft will be discharged from the Asia Pacific region in the next 20 years. As a result, the actual number of aircraft operated in the region, including China, will be 16,977 in the next 20 years.”

Ronnachai said that each aircraft will have a lifetime of between 24 and 30 years on average, and are typically operated by premium airlines for the first 12 years before they are sold to other airlines or air service providers. Each aircraft will see about four to six years of operations before entering major maintenance. Each round of such maintenance would cost about Bt25 million, Ronnachai said.

Thai Union Group PCL, a leader in the global seafood business, has won major awards in several Thailand categories in the 18th annual Asia’s Best Managed Companies survey by FinanceAsia.

In a poll of 140 portfolio managers and buy-side analysts around the world, Thai Union was placed first for “Most Committed to Corporate Governance” and “Best at Corporate Social Responsibility.”

Together with the top two categories, Thai Union was ranked second for “Best CEO” (Thiraphong Chansiri), “Best CFO” (Joerg Ayrle), “Best Managed Company”, and “Best at Investor Relations.”

Thai Union Group’s CEO, Thiraphong Chansiri, commented that the awards reflected investors trust and confidence in Thai Union.

“I’m very proud that Thai Union’s hard work, especially on corporate governance and corporate social responsibility, has been acknowledged by the investor community. We will continue to embrace our role as a leader for positive change, while striving for strong business growth,” said Chansiri.

Last year, Chansiri and Ayrle were also recognized as the third Best CEO and third Best CFO, respectively, in the consumer/staples sector of the Institutional Investor’s 2017 poll.

Thai Union was also named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Emerging Markets Index (DJSI) for the fourth consecutive year in 2017, as well as named to the FTSE4Good Emerging Index.

SMART WINDOW DISPLAYS VIEW TO BLIND PASSENGERS

From rolling hills to mountain ranges, views make any road trip memorable, but for blind passengers this is part of the experience that they miss.

Ford’s prototype smart car window aims to change this – by enabling blind or partially-sighted people to visualise passing scenery through touch.

Feel The View takes pictures that are turned into high-contrast monochrome images. These are then reproduced on the glass using special LEDs.

By touching the image, different shades of grey vibrate with a range of 255 intensities, allowing passengers to touch the scene and rebuild in their mind the landscape in front of them.

Feel The View was conceived and developed by Ford of Italy and GTB Roma, in collaboration with Aedo – an Italian start-up that specialises in devices for the visually impaired.

“We seek to make people’s lives better and this was a fantastic opportunity to help blind passengers experience a great aspect of driving. The technology is advanced, but the concept is simple – and could turn mundane journeys into truly memorable ones,” said Marco Saffi, Ford/Italy.

SCB EXPANDS FINTECH VENTURE CAPITAL PROGRAMME TO $100M

Siam Commercial Bank (SCB), through its FinTech investment arm Digital Ventures Co Ltd, has increased its corporate venture capital |fund by US$50 million, bringing the fund’s |total capital base to US$100 million and |making it the largest venture capital fund in Thailand.

The bank also signalled a shift in focus from fund-of-fund investment towards more direct investment to support its digital transformation strategy.

Arak Sutivong, SCB chief financial officer and chief strategy officer, said that during the past two years, SCB has achieved significant investment milestones and established strategic partnerships with leading venture capital funds and startups.

“With this success, we have expanded our access to critical technologies. At present, we have engaged with over 800 startups and more than 60 venture capital funds in nearly 30 countries.

“This has provided us unparalleled opportunity to learn about, connect with, and invest in technologies ranging from blockchain to quantum computing to geolocation.

“Such technologies add tremendous value to our business operations and to customers, and play an essential role in SCB’s digital transformation.

Our past success has given us the confidence to double our venture capital fund size from US$50 million (Bt1.75 billion) to a total of US$100 million (over Bt3 billion).”

Polapat Arkkrapridi, managing director, corporate venture capital, Digital Ventures Co Ltd said that the increased capital base will allow us to continue sourcing and investing in technologies vital to SCB’s transformation strategy and innovation initiatives.

Such innovations will address new business challenges and open up new opportunities for us to introduce groundbreaking products and services to the bank’s retail and corporate customers.

Digital Ventures’ venture capital strategy has focused on building networks and relationships with key startups, leading venture capital funds, and fintech thought leaders around the world, and on promoting knowledge sharing with SCB management and corporate customers through its annual Faster Future Forum, as well as regular workshops and seminars.

ONE-OFF CAR TO TOAST THE ROYAL WEDDING

MINI is to celebrate the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle with a one-off MINI Hatch designed specifically to commemorate the special occasion and to be donated to one of the couple’s chosen charities.

After the wedding day on 19 May, this one-of-a-kind MINI will be handed over to The |Children’s HIV Association (CHIVA) for public auction.

“As an iconic British brand with almost 60 years of history in the UK, we are pleased to mark the royal wedding with this special charitable gift,” explains Oliver Heilmer, Head of MINI Design.

“The MINI Design team has created a one-off MINI Hatch for the occasion. Its specially designed roof graphic combines with 3D-printed personalised interior and exterior details as well as special embroidery to make this a MINI like no other.”

The company remains optimistic of the economic outlook this year, but remain cautious as domestic demand remains weak as it recovers.

Darm Nana, chief financial officer, said that the ever- changing behaviour of consumers has always been both key risks and key opportunities for RS.

“We’ve proven ourselves to be very adaptive to any market circumstances. Multi-platform commerce (MPC), the new business endeavour of RS, is a living proof of our resilience. In the modern media world, it is not viable to rely on a single-engined business. This simply means being a regular TV channel operator will no longer be sufficient to drive earnings to the level RS is aiming for,”

“MPC model is derived from all platforms operating and partnering with RS, such as media (Channel 8, 4 satellite TV channels, Radio), online sales, retails and direct sales,” he said.

Darm said RS’s revenue in the first quarter of 2018 reached Bt969 million, up 30 per cent year on year. Meanwhile, the company’s net profit stood at Bt102 million, a 117 per cent growth compared to the same quarter of last year. The surge in performance was attributed to its multi-platform commerce (MPC) business, which grew 191 per cent in revenue and enjoyed significantly higher profits than its competitors, thanks to the addition of health and beauty products under brands Magique, Revive and SOM.

Meanwhile, it has also branched out to home and lifestyle products such as home appliances, kitchen appliances, and clothing. Repeat orders were seen in its existing customer base which kept expanding with new comers, reaching a new high on a monthly basis.

“Our revenue target for this year remains unchaged at Bt5.8 billion, consisting of 60 per cent from MPC business, media 35 per cent and 5 per cent from others. We now consider ourselves as a commerce company,” he said.

“We are always in search of new business opportunities, particularly those which could synergise with our core businesses. The current plan is to drive the MPC to reach a higher potential, given a large customer’s database we have accumulated over the past few years, and the increase in the number of products (SKU) on offer through our platforms,” added Darm.

Furthermore, Darm said that with Channel 8 being the flagship of our media business, Number 2 prime time rating in the country and top 5 rating in evening prime time, advertising revenue nearly doubled in March, a new phenomenon despite a slow season for the media market. It has also secured long-term advertisement and sold advertising platforms as expected.

“Things are looking positive in the second quarter as both MPC and Channel 8 are still on track. The two businesses complement one another, and the company balances external advertisement and its own advertisement well. As a result, its platforms are maximised, generating higher profits for the company. The rising star of the company is the MPC business as the company partners with world-class labs to conduct research and produce high-quality products that meet international standard to meet various needs of consumers,” he said.

“It has been three years since we entered the health and beauty business with Life Star. We expect that it will be our main earner in the future. We are aware that health and beauty products must have high quality and be carefully produced,” he added.

Facebook Thailand managing director John Wagner said it was Facebook’s mission to lead the transformation of Thailand into a digital economy and society and to support the country’s businesses and communities to realise their digital aspirations.

Facebook will launch new programmes, partnerships, and initiatives to support the three drivers it has identified for Thailand’s transformation.

Wagner said SMEs were central to the Thai economy, carrying out 98 per cent of business, employing 70 per cent of the workforce and accounting for 40 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP).

Facebook has committed to offering the support programmes, included workshop and live training, online training, and chat support for SMEs.

“Facebook also see the huge opportunities from the gaps in the digital transformation among large businesses,” Wagner said. “While a lot more large Thai businesses have recognised that digital transformation is necessary, only a few of them have a digital strategy, while most of them are aware of this need but have yet acted.”

Wagner cited a finding from BCG Analysis 2018 that there are US10 billion in digital transformation opportunities in Thailand, “if businesses evolve their digital strategies to move faster and build more efficient Net experiences for customers”, he said.

Thais have created more than one million group accounts on Facebook, including those that aim to create a positive social impact.

“For example, Help Us Read is a Facebook group connecting more than 11,000 volunteers with people who are visually impaired,” Wagner said. “Run2Gether hosts running events to promote inclusivity and wellness for disabled people. And Handup Network is a community that connects social enterprises with skilled professional mentors to help them build sustainable organisations and drive their mission forward. Our journey is 1 per cent done.”

He said: “Facebook is an integral part of Thai digital society reflected in the numbers that over 51 million Thais access Facebook every month, and over 34 million Thai people access Facebook every day.”

According to the “GWI Thailand Market Report Q4 2017: Profiling Internet users”, Thais are deeply engaged in digital experiences and Thailand ranks No 1 on time spent on mobile internet daily.

Today is the first day that bid documents are available to prospective bidders, with June 14 the final day they can be picked up.

Advanced Info Service and its subsidiary Advanced Wireless Network each picked up one bid document.

DTAC TriNet and DTAC Broadband – part of Total Access Communication (DTAC) – also each picked up a document, as did TrueMove H Universal Communication, which is True Corp’s cellular operator.

Prospective bidders have to submit applications on June 15 if they want to participate in the NBTC’s licensing auction, which is scheduled to take place on August 4.

The regulator will auction three licences under the 1800MHz spectrum, each of which will contain bandwidth of 15MHz.

TrueMove H said in a statement that it was the role of mobile operators to take this opportunity to pick up the bid document for study and acknowledgement of the conditions of the auction.

TrueMove H has hired a third-party, world-class business consultant to conduct a feasibility study on the investment in frequencies which are up for auction, the statement said.

However, the company believes the multitude of its existing frequencies with a combined bandwidth of up to 55MHz currently serves the demand for data of its 27 million subscribers well, and will remain sufficient and efficient enough to accommodate future growth in doubling its subscriber base.

Taking into account TrueMove H’s current portfolio of frequencies, as well as the auction price, the company’s management does not see the necessity to acquire additional frequencies as this contains sufficient spectra for both present and future businesses, it continued.

However, the decision on whether to participate in the auction will depend on the results of the feasibility study being conducted by the business consultant, as well as the resolution of the board of directors.

“We were able to exit from a critical situation by eliminating excessive debt at the end of March,” Toshiba’s new chief executive Nobuaki Kurumatani told a news conference.

“I personally regard it as the starting line for us… for transforming into an excellent company that can survive competition with global excellent companies,” he said.

The firm said it had booked a record net profit of 804.0 billion yen ($7.3 billion), compared with a loss of 965.7 billion yen a year earlier.

That marks the first net profit for the firm in four years and was helped by one-off revenue from tax cuts linked to the sale of its nuclear units.

However, operating profits dropped 21.9 percent to 64.1 billion yen while sales declined 2.4 percent to 3.95 trillion yen.

Toshiba had been on the ropes after its disastrous acquisition of US nuclear energy firm Westinghouse, which racked up billions of dollars in losses before being placed under bankruptcy protection.

Those losses came to light as the group was still reeling from revelations that top executives had pressured underlings to cover up weak results for years after the 2008 global financial meltdown.

In order to survive and avoid delisting, the cash-strapped group decided on the multibillion-dollar sale of its prized chip business to a consortium led by Bain Capital.

The chip unit brought in around 90 percent of Toshiba’s total operating profit in the first six months of the fiscal year 2017 and was the crown jewel in a vast range of businesses ranging from home appliances to nuclear reactors.

At the time the deal was seen as crucial to keeping it afloat after multi-billion-dollar losses.

On Tuesday, Toshiba said it was still waiting for Chinese antitrust authorities to approve the key sale but denied speculation that it was considering reversing course in the deal.

In November, Toshiba said it planned to raise 600 billion yen by issuing new shares, a move aimed at avoiding delisting even if the chip business sale is delayed.

The firm said it expected a net profit of 1.07 trillion yen for the current year to March 2019, up 33.1 percent from the previous year, on sales of 3.6 trillion yen.

Investors cheered the results, with Toshiba shares closing up 3.46 percent at 299 yen in Tokyo.

Hideki Yasuda, an analyst at Ace Research Institute in Tokyo, warned that the sale of the chip business would be crucial.

“We are paying close attention to the fate of its memory chip business. The cancellation of the deal will change the company’s strategy significantly,” Yasuda told AFP.

“Toshiba needs to create a fresh source of profit, but it is likely to take two to three years to find and foster it.”