Last year, the carrier earned 6 billion Hong Kong dollars (Bt27.6 billion) on revenue of HK$102.34 billion.

James Tong, director of corporate affairs, told The Nation late on Monday after a press conference to celebrate the airline’s first new Airbus A350-900XWB that the company also was interested in expanding in Asean countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia.

In Thailand, it is studying route expansion after succeeding in managing its three direct flights to Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Phuket.

“Asean is a potential market for our expansion after our fleet increases from 144 aircraft this year to 214 in 2020 after the delivery of 70 new aircraft from this year until 2020,” he said.

The first new aircraft in its fleet is the Airbus A350-900 XWB. It arrived at Hong Kong International Airport from Toulouse, France, on Sunday.

This is the first of 22 new Airbus A350-900s that will be delivered until 2017.

The next new aircraft are 26 Airbus A350-1000s that will be delivered from 2018-20.

They will be followed by 21 new Boeing 777-9Xs and a Boeing 747-8F, which will also arrive by 2020.

Tong said the first Airbus A350-900 would start flying from Hong Kong to Manila today.

“Other new Airbus A350-900s that will be delivered this year will start to fly from Hong Kong to Asian countries including Thailand. We will start to use the Airbus A350-900 to fly the route from Hong Kong to Bangkok within a few months,” he said.

Rupert Hogg, Cathay’s chief operating officer, said at the ceremony that after flying short hauls in Asia, the Airbus A350-900, which is configured with 280 seats – 38 in business class, 28 in premium economy and 214 in economy – would serve non-stop flights to Europe and North America next year.

JP Group plans to list on the stock market in due course.

Under the partnership, the companies are initially launching Social Life Tower digital out-of-home media, equipped with 4×4 metre screens, on an 8-metre tower at Phuket International Airport. The screens will allow airport passengers to get an interaction with brands both socially and emotionally.

New landmark

“We expect that this new interactive media will be a new landmark at Phuket International Airport. The company also aims to bring this cutting-edge technology to other international airports in the Kingdom soon, in order to create a connection between brands and customers,” Ranjira Kongsawat, managing director of Next Cube, said yesterday.

Meanwhile, JP Group also sees a huge opportunity in out-of-home (OOH) media business, particularly at the country’s international airports, which are Thailand’s gateways for foreign visitors.

Jakaphan Prachuabmoh, chairman of JP Group, said Phuket International Airport welcomed more than 10 million international tourists each year.

Its Social Life Tower could therefore be seen by millions of people, presenting a tremendous opportunity for brands and media advertisers to communicate with target customers via online and offline approaches.

The current business diversification is a part a group restructuring with the aim of being listed on the Market for Alternative Investment in the near future, he added.

The move appears to be in line with the industry’s development from static billboards to digital screens in order to improve advertising utilisation.

Despite facing flat growth this year, digital OOH media are seen as a key future driver as they will replace static billboards in prime locations, thus enhancing capacity.

In addition, digital screens have become more popular due to a combination of multimedia technologies via which advertisers can match such media with a consumer’s journey, covering all lifestyles of the target group.

Recently, Witsuwat Amkaphet, manager of Kinetic Worldwide (Thailand), forecast that by the year’s end, more than 500 digital screens would be added nationwide – 60 per cent of them located in Bangkok – thus boosting the use of OOH media.

Kinetic Worldwide (Thailand), the local unit of the world’s leading OOH media agency, estimates that people spend over 12 hours a day outside on average, making OOH media increasingly important and popular.

Last year, ad spending via OOH media in Thailand was about Bt8 billion.

Thai financial and investment-services company Asia Plus Group Holdings has invested in Lalamove to drive the company to profitability and to complete Lalamove’s third-round funding over the past 18 months. The latest cash injection brings Lalamove’s total funding to $30 million. The latest round of funding was led by existing investor MindWorks with participation from other existing investors including China’s Crystal Stream, Taiwan’s AppWorks and Hong Kong’s Aria Group.

After Lalamove’ s recent partnership with Line to launch the Line Man app, the funding success reveals the speed at which Lalamove is growing, said its chief executive officer, Shing Chow.

“There is so much potential in making delivery more efficient as mobile Internet is changing the way mobile assets are utilised,” Chow said.

“This funding will be used to accelerate our leadership position and expansion efforts throughout China and [Southeast Asian] countries. It’s really a vote of confidence from our existing investors in our model and team. “It is our goal to be profitable this year, and it’s quite rare that you see a start-up growing at our speed, achieving that in less than three years. We are on track to deliver that.”

This is the first time Asia Plus Group Holdings has invested in a tech company. The Thai firm’s CEO, Kongkiat Opaswongkarn, is positive about the investment.

“The fact that we are investing in an app company for the first time really demonstrates how much we believe in the success of Lalamove and the e-logistics market in Thailand and within Southeast Asia.

“We have followed the expansion, strategy and successes of Lalamove and we like what we see and the great potential for profitability. We are excited to be helping to make that happen and to be part of that success story.” Santit Jirawongkraisorn, co-founder and managing director of Lalamove Thailand, said the investment from Asia Plus Group Holdings revealed great confidence in Lalamove.

“We are involved in a fast-moving company in an expanding market with huge potential. The recent funding reveals investor confidence in our business plans, including Thai investor confidence.

WHAT ARE RECENT DEVELOPMENTS OF PREMIER INN IN UK AND IN SOUTHEAST ASIA REGION?

Premier Inn in the UK had another successful year with positive growth. Last year, it added 5,461 new rooms, picked up the coveted title of No 1 hotel brand in the 2015, and achieved a TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence.

For Southeast Asia, recent commercial developments include the successful openings of Premier Inn Pattaya, Thailand and Premier Inn Surabaya and Yogyakarta in Indonesia. In terms of upcoming commercial developments for Southeast Asia, we will be opening new Premier Inns in Singapore and Sentul in Indonesia. Beyond Southeast Asia, we will be opening additional Premier Inns in Goa, India, Ibn Battuta in Dubai UAE and Doha Education City in Qatar.

WHAT ARE FUTURE PLANS SPECIFICALLY FOR THAILAND MARKET OVER NEXT FEW YEARS?

We have ambitious investment plans for Thailand in the near future, as it represents an important high-growth market for us. I am pleased to report that we are making steady progress and will be opening our second hotel in Thailand, Premier Inn Bangkok Soi 11 early next year.

It will have 224 rooms and is centrally located in the heart of the busy and dynamic Shukhumvit district. Moving forward, we are also continually looking for new investment and development opportunities with the hope of extending our award-winning brand to other key locations across Thailand.

The current and future travel outlook between the UK and Thailand is and will continue to remain positive. According to the UK’s Foreign Commonwealth Office, nearly 1 million British nationals visited Thailand last year. The UK is also home to the largest Thai expatriate community outside Asia and North America, while over 50,000 British nationals have chosen to make Thailand their permanent home.

When it comes to current market demographics, we tend have a broad mix of customers comprising of nationals from the UK, China, Thailand, and the Middle East.

WHAT ARE PREMIER INN MARKETING PLANS AND ACTIVITIES LINED UP FOR THAILAND IN REST MONTHS THIS YEAR?

From a marketing perspective, we will be focusing our efforts on building brand awareness and positioning ourselves as a market-leader within Thailand’s mid-segment hotel industry. We will also continuously strive to deliver on our brand promise, which is helping our guest feel brilliant through a great night’s sleep.

WHAT ARE KEY CORPORATE STRATEGIES FOR PREMIER INN?

Premier Inn is positioned as a leading mid-segment hotel. We have an award-winning brand and we are confident that what we offer – quality accommodation at affordable prices, supported by our unique Good Night Guarantee – will be a big hit with customers and that Premier Inn will fast become the preferred choice for value conscious travelers.

HOW’S GOOD NIGHT GUARANTEE INITIATIVE WORKS?

Premier Inn has been building and will continue to deliver a strong brand promise, which is to help our guest feel brilliant through a great night’s sleep. We also pride ourselves on comfort and quality, so whether you’re staying for business or leisure, you’ll always enjoy a warm welcome from our friendly teams.

Somkiat Anuras, vice chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber’s Business Confidence Index was only 42, while the Economic Confidence Index stood at a very low 22.8. Scores above 50 indicate positive confidence.

He cited the aforementioned factors for the lack of confidence, along with continuing low agricultural prices that resulted in a drop in farm incomes and more debt. According to a recent survey of five chambers of commerce around the country, 43.7 per cent of business operators reported a drop in sales and 34.8 per cent reported no change.

Most of the business operators said their costs remained unchanged, while 45.6 per cent had higher costs.

The survey of the Central region chamber found business operators there had the highest confidence, with the confidence index at 54.2. Just over 47 per cent of operators had higher sales |and said they were more competitive.

The South’s Economic Confidence Index was the highest, with business operators reporting an improvement in public and private investment and the strong expansion of |the tourism industry. Almost |47 per cent of business operators said tourism had improved and rubber prices were likely to rise.

Based on the survey findings, the government has been advised to collaborate more with the private sector and inject more money into the grass-rooted economy in a bid to prevent a worsening of the economic slowdown.

Business operators also urged the government to take control of product prices and factors affecting production, promote public investment through stimulus measures and improve infrastructure in each region with equality.

The Thai economy is expected to improve in the latter half of this year, subject to global economic factors.

AIS controlled 50.9 per cent of the market in the fourth quarter last year, while Total Access Communication (DTAC) held 28.3 per cent and True 20.8 per cent. For the first quarter of this year, AIS’s market share slipped slightly to 50.5 per cent, followed by DTAC at 27.5 per cent and True at 22 per cent.

Somchai Lertsutiwong, chief executive officer of AIS, said yesterday that 1 percentage point of market share was worth about Bt1 billion.

The company had forecast its market share slipping to 49 per cent this year after failing to win a licence in the original 900MHz auction last December.

The band on the 900MHz spectrum will allow AIS to make more revenue and lower investment for network coverage.

It expects to achieve 80-per-cent coverage for its fourth-generation network this year, versus 50 per cent previously targeted.

AIS is also keen to form a joint venture with TOT to operate telecom towers and further expand its fixed-line broadband service as part of the plan to boost revenue.

In the initial phase, AIS might lease telecom towers from TOT to provide the service and will move to collaborate on a joint venture soon.

The ownership of about 13,000 telecom towers is being disputed by AIS and TOT.

“We have to seek more revenue sources and generate more revenue after spending profusely on the network,” Somchai said.

AIS subsidiary Advanced Wireless Network, the only bidder, pledged Bt75.65 billion for the 900MHz licence in the replay auction last week.

It is expected to pay the Bt8.04-billion first instalment of the upfront fee for its new licence by June 30, and Bt4.02 billion for the second- and third-year instalments and Bt67.61 billion for the fourth year.

AIS is also interested in vying for other frequencies in the future.

AIS will continue its 2G service for a few more years.

Now AIS has 250,000 2G users on its network while AWN has about five million users who still have 2G phones and roam on the 900MHz network.

They would like to see the penalties include fines, imprisonment, and a ban from directorship, instead of just fines as in most cases in Thailand.

Absence of a strong ethical corporate culture was also seen by directors responding to the survey as the key factor behind the unethical conduct of directors.

The second annual Thai Director Survey reflects views of company directors on issues of their immediate concern. Conducted between March and May, it drew responses from 416 directors. Given the diversity of respondents’ experiences and the types and sizes of their businesses, the survey is believed to represent fairly the overall views of directors in Thailand.

According to the survey, 65 per cent of directors think the current penalty for unfair treatment or taking advantage of other investors such as insider trading and stock manipulation is too light. Most directors think the punishment for such wrongdoing should include fines, jail terms, and disqualification from directorships.

Based on data available on the Securities and Exchange Commission website, the IOD has found that most directors or executives who were found guilty of unfair treatment just paid a fine and were able to keep their board seats. Some cases are repeat offences. Penalties should therefore be raised to such levels as to discourage or deter such offences, the survey results suggest.

“The IOD feels that wrongdoings by directors related to asset malpractice are serious offences that cannot be ignored, as they undermine both legal and ethical standards. Therefore, boards should thoroughly probe the persons being nominated for directorships to ensure that they have no prior record of conviction under the Securities and Exchange Act,” said Dr Bandid Nijathaworn, president and chief executive officer of the IOD.

Respondents took the view that key factors causing directors to perform their duties unethically included the lack of an ethical corporate culture (60 per cent), boards weighing profit over ethics (47 per cent), and inefficient internal control (36 per cent).

An improvement on these fronts should start at the board level by recognising the importance of the establishment of an ethical corporate culture. The board should also set a prudent example and install a proper and ethical governance system.

Board performance

Regarding board performance, 74 per cent of respondents viewed board diversity, specifically inclusion of directors with various skills that align with business strategy, as the most crucial element in enhancing board efficiency.

At board meetings this year, most directors think they will put more emphasis on business strategy (61 per cent) and risk management (54 per cent).

On the outlook for the Thai economy, 35 per cent of directors expect stable growth, 33 per cent foresee slightly worsening conditions, 10 per cent anticipate severe economic deterioration, and 22 per cent project a mild improvement.

They share a similar view on the global economic outlook, with 39 per cent of directors anticipating steady growth, 33 per cent foreseeing slightly weaker prospects, 12 per cent expecting a steep decline, and 16 per cent projecting a small improvement.