Towards this aim, the company’s goal for 2018 is to edge out the Relentless brand to become the No 3 player in the key market – where about one billion cans are sold – by the end of the year. The Monster brand is the second biggest seller.

Relentless sells about 35 million cans of its energy drink in Britain each year.

Carabao’s vision is to become the No 2 energy drink brand in the UK by 2022, said Mark Young, managing director of InterCarabao Ltd, with its head office in Reading, England.

Young said InterCarabao was set up in the UK in mid-2016 as the entity in charge of sales and marketing activities for the Carabao energy drink range in the UK and other European markets. The brand’s entry in the UK market came at the start of 2017.

Young, who spent 21 years at PepsiCo, said sales of Carabao energy drinks in UK increased significantly last year, from about 100,000 cans a month to one million. A total of nine million cans were sold in the UK last year.

“Our mission is to deliver a delicious tasting soft drink for |every adult that empowers them to achieve personal goals.

While our vision is to aim to be No 2 energy drink company by 2022,” he said.

He said that the company expected to deliver 7.6 million cans in the first quarter of this year, and then an average of three million cans would be sold per month following major new listings.

“Between 35 and 45 million cans of Carabao energy drink are expected to be sold this year, while between 60 million and 65 million cans are targeted for 2019, and up to 100 million cans are expected to be sold in 2020,” said Young.

He added that up to 7 million pounds in investment would be allocated to marketing activities in the UK this year, excluding sponsorship deals.

Major shareholders of the group plan to privately invest up to Bt14 billion within the next four years to develop the business fundamentals for the Carabao drinks in China, including the possible establishment of the company’s own manufacturing facilities there.

Sathien Setthasit, chairman of Carabao Group Plc, said that group had spent more than Bt2 billion over the past six months to lay the foundations for Carabao’s entry into China.

This includes opening branch offices in 26 counties throughout the country, as well as appointing between 500 and 600 distributors for the company’s energy drink products. The group has about 1,000 employees in China alone.

Sathien said that the company aimed to sell 300 million cans of Carabao in China this year and up to one billion cans next year. The brand comes with a range of flavours.

“We will this year appoint a local manufacturer in China to produce the Carabao energy drinks for distribution in the China market under an original equipment manufacturing (OEM) contract. We, however, plan to set up our own factory in China when total sales volume reaches 500 million cans a year,” he said.

“We believe in the great quality and taste of our Carabao energy drink products. What we have been doing is to make Chinese consumers aware of the drink and try our products. They then will have a real experience with our energy drinks.”

Sathien said that between Bt3 billion and Bt4 billion would be allocated for the establishment of the group’s own factory in China, which would have a production capacity of about one billion cans a year.

On the UK market, Sathien said that the group was on the right track in having penetrated that market and, by 2020, the business performance in the country would turn a profit.

He said that in the UK, more than 80 per cent of the distribution of fast-moving consumer goods is in the hands of the major chain stores, which have more than 20,000 points of sales outlets throughout the country.

“We have spent 30 million pounds for the three-year sponsorship of the Chelsea football club, and 18 million pounds for three-year sponsorship of the English Football League (EFL),” said Sathien. “What we are doing is to convince all retail store operators as well as individual consumers that we are serious about penetrating the UK market, and to be there for the long term.”

He said the company is negotiating with Tesco, the largest grocery store chain in the UK, for it to sell Carabao. The negotiations are expected to be concluded by the end of this year. Meanwhile, the company will start selling its energy drinks in the Sainbury’s chain in April. Sainbury’s operates about 1,500 stores in the UK.

Sathien said the Thai market alone was no longer sufficient and that the company needed to open up opportunities abroad for the brand.

“We saw a drop in the overall energy drink market in Thailand last year, while the Carabao energy drinks witnessed a slight growth of only 0.3 per cent,” he said.

Sathien said that for this year, the group expected sales growth for the Carabao drink in Thailand at about 10 per cent, adding that growth in international sales would be no less than 30 per cent.

The Carabao drinks range is now exported to more than 20 markets.

The group has a local manufacturer in the Netherlands, which produces the product under an OEM contract, for supply to the UK and other potential markets in Europe.

“We will start selling the Carabao energy drinks in France in June this year. We plan to launch the product in other potential markets in Europe, including Germany and Scandinavia,” said Sathien.

He said the contribution from exports had increased significantly over the past three years, from only 20 per cent to about 45 per cent currently. Exports would increase to 55 per cent of the company’s total sales by the end of this year.

Carabao Group expected its total sales revenue to reach about Bt15 billion this year, up from the Bt12 billion earned last year.

The company said it would abide by the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) requirements on ICOs once the watchdog’s regulations were released.

Phongthon Tharachai, chief executive officer of PPS, said the company has joined with partners in studying the ICO route for fundraising.

“Initially, we will offer about 500 million tokens of ProfinCoin, or about Bt500 million. Our objective is to use the proceeds to finance our construction factoring extension to a customer who is also our partner,” Phongthon said.

He said PPS foresees business opportunities for construction factoring, as the construction of mega-projects previously has faced delays and some contractors suffered from a lack of liquidity.

Now, Thailand’s factoring market is worth about Bt200 billion with an average interest-based return of 8 per cent per year.

PPS expects to set up a joint venture by March 7, with pre-sales from March 15-31 ahead of the company raising capital from April 5-30. The first project’s investment is estimated on May 1.

The company aimed to follow the SEC’s rules and regulations, which are due to be introduced in the near future, for this fund mobilisation through the ICO, and once these regulations are launched, the company is ready to follow them, Phongthon said.

Chonladet Khemarattana, chief executive officer of Fintech (Thailand) Co Ltd, said that its ProfinCoin is an asset-backed token, which may be defined by the SEC as being similar to securities.

As discussed earlier with the SEC on the fund-raising direction, he said that the regulator told the company that it could mobilise funds instantly and make any adjustments when the ICO regulations are released.

One token is equivalent to Bt1 and is asset backed in the form of cash, he said.

The off-take agreement calls for the supply of 1.2 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) for a term of 15 years.

“PTTEP endeavors to expedite the development of the Mozambique Rovuma Offshore Area 1 as one of the world’s leading greenfield projects, to increase our petroleum reserves in the future,” said Phongsthorn Thavisin, President for Exploration and Production of PTTEP.

 KTC will encourage some 1.6 million of its customers to download the mobile application by the end of this year.

The app allows customers to make payments by QR code in Vietnam and the company expects to expand services to India and Cambodia in the near future.

Tosapong Rangkawara, vice president of credit card business at KTC, said the firm also provides special privileges for transactions by limiting foreign-currency exchange fluctuation risks to less than 2 per cent. Customers can receive 1 per cent cash back for every transaction made on foreign currencies. Moreover, customers will receive up to 1.5 per cent cash back for transactions made in foreign currencies worth more than Bt1.5 million. The promotion is available until May 31.

“The QR code payment service is under consideration for the regulatory sandbox of the Bank of Thailand (BoT),” Tosapong said.

“I think that the BOT will officially approve the regulatory sandbox for the QR code payment service in the near future, which is part of the bid to promote a cashless society in the country. However, next month we will join hands with other two banks to provide QR code payments in the market. The firm now provides QR code payments under the Visa standard.”

He said that KTC’s customers and members are now able to pay for products and service fee charges via QR Code nationwide and in Vietnam.

He said that the firm has around two million customers and 500,000 of them have downloaded its TapKTC mobile application.

Suripong Tantiyanon, country manager of Visa Thailand, said that the firm plans to expand the QR code payment service to support customers in the global market as the next step of development.

She says BAM is pursuing its plan to be listed in the Stock Exchange of Thailand but the company has yet to decide on the date.

At the end of year 2017, BAM reported total revenue of Bt7.65 billion, Bt4.5 billion in net profit and total asset of Bt99.93 billion, she said.

The company’s management reported to the Stock Exchange of Thailand that in 2017 THAI and its subsidiaries posted a total revenue of Bt191.94 billion, increased by Bt11.38 billion (6.3 per cent) resulting from the increase in passenger and excess baggage revenue, freight and mail revenue, and revenue from other activities.

Meanwhile, its total expense of Bt189.09 billion showed an increase of Bt12.60 billion (7.1 per cent) resulting from the increase in fuel expense by Bt4.87 billion (10.8 per cent), a 24.2 per cent rise in jet fuel prices and the increase of traffic production.

Its non-fuel operating expense also increased by Bt8.31 billion (6.6 per cent) due to the increase of traffic production and passenger traffic. Maintenance and overhaul expenses also increased.