Managing director Theerachai Prasitratanaporn said registered capital is Bt1 million, with 10,000 shares valued at Bt100 each.

The shareholders are TMI with 99.98 per cent and Theerapong and Theerasak Prasitratanaporn with 0.01 per cent each.

“For 2018, SCN aims to achieve a new high in our operations thanks to favourable recurring income from natural gas that is growing, realising of the NGV bus project with the BMTA, and cooperation with Sojitz Corp in marketing Type IV CNG tanks in the global market,” he said.

The company earned Bt2.51 billion in 2017, with profits dropping by 29 per cent to Bt217 million. Despite that, the board on February 22 approved dividends of Bt0.10 per share, worth a total of Bt120 million.

The report, entitled “e-Conomy Southeast Asia Spotlight 2017”, identifies this economic sphere as comprising e-commerce, online travel, online media and ride-hailing services.

All sectors of the broader economy would potentially benefit from rapid expansion of the digital economy, including the digitised traditional businesses, existing digital companies, and new entrepreneurs, says the report, which was co-developed by Google and Temasek.

Google Thailand country director Ben King said all business sectors need to be digitised and that most of them had begun on this path.

The company sees a strong trend of digitisation in the finance and telecommunication industries, in particular, in Thailand.

“All business can capture the huge opportunities of the digital economy through the digitisation in three areas – digitising in core business, focusing on data-infrastructure, and digitising the market,” King said.

He said Thailand is at an inflection point. However, it has six roadblocks that need to be overcome.

These barriers refer to users and infrastructure, payments, logistics, customer trust, funding, and talent, he said.

Thailand’s Internet users, as of third quarter of 2017, numbered 45 million, of which 20 million were active users. It needs to get many more millions to become active online users.

Last year, Google has launched two products to address this challenge, which includes Datally and Files Go. Meanwhile, the government’s national e-payment platform, PromptPay, is an example of an initiative that can help to unlock the payment roadblock in Thailand.

“Large private sector investment in the country will drive improvements in logistics and customer trust, such as through warehousing, deliveries and inventories,” King said.

Google said it was encouraged that more funds investment funds were flowing into the region including Thailand.

The report showed that from 2015 to 2017, some US$13 billion was invested in Southeast Asian Internet companies. In 2007, this was US$7.7 billion, with US$4.4 billion in 2016 and US$1.1 billion in 2015.

The majority of funds, around 75 per cent, or US$9 billion, were invested in unicorns – unlisted companies with a valuation of over US$1 billion.

In that period, there were nearly 1,400 deals in the region. Most of them, around 1,095 deals, were fund raising in Series A and Seed rounds.

“It shows that there are a lot of opportunities for Thai Internet companies,” said King.

In order to help the region’s Internet economy to reach US$200 billion in 2025, it required funds of US$40 billion to US$50 billion from 2015 to 2025.

The report focused on four areas of the Internet economy – e-commerce, online media, ride-hailing services and online travel. It excludes education, entertainment, financial services and healthcare.

The report showed that in 2025, there will be 20 million more online shoppers in Thailand, thanks to the increasing ranks of Internet users in Thailand.

Thais spend 4.2 hours per day on mobile Internet platforms, the highest in the Southeast Asia.

The acquisitions comprise a 76 per cent stake in Hotpot and Thai food restaurant operator Spice of Asia Co Ltd to operate 10 restaurants in Thailand; a 75 per cent stake in Myanmar’s largest whisky player, the Grand Royal Group, to operate spirits business in the country; 252 existing KFC restaurants in Thailand; and a 53.6 per cent stake in Vietnam’s largest beer player, Saigon Beer – Alcohol – Beverage Joint Stock Corporation (Sabeco).

Following the completion of these acquisitions, ThaiBev has begun consolidating their financials into the group’s accounting statements. The acquisitions are in line with ThaiBev’s ‘Vision 2020’ strategic roadmap and bringing it closer to achieve its objective of becoming the largest beverage company in Southeast Asia.

The assets and liabilities of the four businesses have been consolidated into the group’s 1Q FY2018 financial statements. With the exception of Sabeco, the earnings of the other three businesses during the reporting quarter have also been consolidated into the group’s income and cash flow statements. Sabeco’s earnings during the reporting quarter were not consolidated into these statements as the relevant share transfer only took place towards the very end of 2017.

Moving forward, ThaiBev will begin recognising Sabeco’s earnings from its second quarter onwards.

The codeshare agreement will cover nine domestic and international routes. The flights will be operated by Bangkok Airways, including roundtrip routes for Bangkok-Samui, Bangkok-Chiang Rai, Bangkok-Chiang Mai, Bangkok-Lampang, Bangkok-Trat, Bangkok-Sukhothai, Bangkok-Danang, Bangkok-Phnom Penh and Bangkok-Siem Reap.

TAA aims to add more routes to the Indian and Asean markets while maintaining its customer base in the Chinese market. This diversified strategy is intended to minimise the risk of dependence on a major customer base and to enhance the company’s future sustainable revenue growth.

TAA is confident it can end the year with a load factor average of 87 per cent and with a target of 23.2 million passengers served.

In 2017, TAA received five aircraft, bringing their year-end total to 56 aircraft.

Tassapon Bijleveld, CEO of Asia Aviation Plc and Thai AirAsia, said that despite an increase in average global fuel prices in 2017, efficient management allowed TAA to continue to grow. Throughout 2017, TAA inaugurated 16 new routes, focusing on inter-regional connections and secondary provinces in support of the overall tourism and government policy.

Broadcom reduced its offer to $79 a share, which would still be the largest-ever deal in the tech sector if completed at an estimated value of nearly $117 billion.

The move came amid a closely watched hostile bid for Qualcomm which could reshape the fast-evolving sector of chips for smartphones and connected devices.

A Broadcom statement said the offer was reduced because “Qualcomm’s board acted against the best interests of its stockholders by unilaterally transferring excessive value to NXP’s activist stockholders.”

Qualcomm, the dominant maker of smartphone chips, has moved to fend off Broadcom’s hostile takeover efforts and last week rejected the latest offer of $82 a share as too low.

“Broadcom’s reduced proposal has made an inadequate offer even worse despite the clear increase in value to Qualcomm stockholders from providing certainty around the NXP acquisition,” the California company said in a released statement.

Qualcomm argued that the $79-per-share offer undervalues the company and fails to take into account strategic and financial benefits it would gain from acquiring NXP.

Qualcomm on Tuesday raised its offer for NXP to an estimated $43 billion, aiming to alleviate concerns of some NXP investors and seal the tie-up which would make a Broadcom acquisition of Qualcomm less enticing.

Broadcom said Wednesday it remained committed to acquiring Qualcomm and its cash-and-stock offer would revert back to $82 per share should Qualcomm fail to acquire NXP.

The Singapore firm accused Qualcomm’s board of acting against shareholder interest “by unilaterally transferring excessive value to NXP’s activist shareholders.”

“Broadcom remains confident that Qualcomm’s stockholders will continue to support its proposal to acquire Qualcomm,” Broadcom said in a statement.

Qualcomm is due to hold an annual meeting March 6 at which Broadcom has nominated six people to replace the majority of Qualcomm’s board of directors.

Broadcom’s original offer for Qualcomm came days after CEO Hock Tan visited the White House and told President Donald Trump the company would be moving back to the United States.