Chief executive Tevin Vongvanich told a press conference yesterday the “ROIC” strategy, which stands for rationalisation, optimisation, integration and consolidation, included plans to divest non-core, underperforming and low-potential assets, further cost reductions, and consolidation of PTT’s business units.

Under the asset divestiture programme, PTT will divest its remaining oil-palm business, consider either divesting or investing more in its coal business, and sell its remaining 5-per-cent stake in SET-listed Star Petroleum Refining after the end of the one-year silent period required by the Stock Exchange of Thailand.

“PTT Exploration and Production is also keen to divest several assets,” he said.

Meanwhile, Tevin said PTT was also interesting in jointly investing with Russian state oil companies in exploration and production (E&P) activities, and in LNG (liquefied natural gas) production facilities in Russia.

The PTT chief executive had just came back yesterday from joining in the Thai government’s official visit to Moscow, led by Deputy Prime Ministers Prawit Wongsuwon and Somkid Jatusripitak, where he met with executives of two Russian state-owned oil and gas companies, Gazprom and Rosneft.

“It’s good timing now because they are also looking for partners who can offer them a market. We will study the possibilities and might be able to sign an MoU within the next two or three months,” he said.

Similar to the natural-gas deals made with Myanmar two decades ago, Tevin said PTT would now consider sealing long-term LNG contracts together with E&P investments, as a way to mitigate risks from the fluctuations of gas prices. If gas prices go up, it will gain from E&P but lose from LNG purchases; on the other hand, if gas prices come down, it will gain less from E&P but benefit from LNG.

He said PTT now believed there was little chance of oil prices making a quick rebound and thus had developed two additional scenarios: a “slow recovery” case in which prices average $35 a barrel this year, and the “worst case” where they stay at $20 for two years.

“In the worst case, we will certainly be affected. But we believe there will be other companies that fall before us. We won’t be among the first to fall,” he said.

Chief financial officer Wirat Uanarumit said PTT was now operating under the most likely scenario that oil prices would averaged about $40 a barrel this year, and that it was likely to make a higher profit this year, since no additional impairment cost was expected.

The energy conglomerate booked Bt54.7 billion in impairment charges on its 2015 account, Bt32.57 billion of which came from PTT Exploration and Production, Bt19.43 billion from its coal business, Bt1.46 billion from its oil-palm business in Indonesia, and Bt1.24 billion from PTT Global Chemical’s biochemical investment in the United States.

On the back of the 47-per-cent slide by crude-oil prices last year, PTT Group booked a 66-per-cent drop in net profit, due to the huge impairment losses. Nevertheless, the group’s operating profit decreased by only 15 per cent, and sales revenue dropped by only 22 per cent, thank to its integrated oil and gas businesses.

It fetched the single highest bid at the auction, which netted a total of 483.5 million kyats.

The auction price started at 3 million kyats.

Coming second at 42 million kyats was 0977 9999999 and third was 09778888888 at 33 million kyats.

The auction process was assured by law firm MN Associates, and observed by audit firm Deloitte Touche Myanmar Vigour Advisory Ltd.

“We are thrilled at the support received for this initiative, and deeply thank all who came to bid and raise funds for a very worthy cause,” said Petter Furberg, chief executive officer of Telenor Myanmar.

“While we recognise the appeal of owning special numbers, it is clear that many were inspired by the opportunity to support our education programme for underprivileged and poor children.

“All the money collected will be given to myME and support our plans to provide education to more than 5,000 to 10,000 children in 2016.”

Telenor announced earlier that all profits above the reserve price of three million kyats per number would be channelled to fund digital education efforts organised by its partner Myanmar Mobile Education’s (myME) programmes in 2016.

It also announced that it would hold future auctions in other states and divisions, for which dates and times will be announced in the future.

What was the secret behind driving Grey Group to become Adweek’s Global Agency of the Year in 2015?

Delivering famously effective business solutions and innovative ideas to our clients.

What is your vision for Grey Group in the next three to five years?

Organic growth supported by acquisitions when needed. Grey is moving in the right direction. We want to continue heading towards [being] the most forward-thinking agency and grow from the foundation of being regarded as one of the most creative network agencies in the world.

What is your key business philosophy and how is this reflected in the agency?

Delivering innovative and groundbreaking work with the best business solutions for our clients. Going beyond the call of duty to establish long-term relationships.

What are your thoughts about the advertising landscape in Thailand, with GREYnJ United recently being named Digital Agency of the Year 2015 at the Adman Awards ?

GREYnJ United’s reputation for excellence fits in well with our “famously effective” culture. It will add to our growth in this important economy. They have done fantastic campaigns such as “The Waiters’ Mom” and “Fulfil” for their client Bar B Q Plaza, as well as proving their success on the global stage like winning at Cannes Lions and Spikes Asia. The acquisition of nudeJEH has been a great success with immediate benefits to the clients.

They have access to Grey Group’s offerings such as its in-house broadcast production facility, GreyWorks, its full-service digital and social-media agency, Grey

Digital, and its shopper-marketing agency, Grey DPI.

Have any experiences from your childhood or youth helped shape you for the business world?

Don’t let adversity or the unexpected challenges that life throws at you define you.

How did you differentiate Grey Group from the other agencies?

By emphasising creativity above and sometimes at the expense of everything else, across disciplines. Good advertising is still about storytelling and deep consumer insight. The way you tell the story has changed because of technology.

What events or campaigns in 2015 surprised you?

It would be #thedress (is it white-and-gold, or black-and-blue?). The speed with which the debate spread over a “dress” demonstrated the power of sharing information on the Internet.

What events in 2015 were below your expectations?

The economies of various countries in Asia-Pacific – China, Indonesia, Malaysia and India slowed down and their performance overall was below expectation. The price of oil tanking. I think we are all hoping for a global recovery and a positive outlook for the future.

What trends do you predict will take off in 2016?

I would say it would be the Internet of Things (IoT) – machine to machine (m2m) communication with the ability to gather, measure, evaluate and interpret data.

It will become substantially bigger, and I do foresee it being an engine for innovating smart products and services in order to engage consumers.

What was your favourite Grey campaign for 2015?

“Life Saving Dot”, which won the Cannes Innovation Lion and Produce Design Lion. This was a very special moment for us at Grey. “This Bike Has MS” – also a great campaign for a worthy cause – raising awareness for multiple sclerosis. “LifePaint” for Volvo.

What would be the one piece of advice you would give to people in the advertising industry?

With our creativity and our understanding of technology, we can go beyond advertising and communication, and look at problems and how we can help the world.

Finding solutions to help create social change, or what we call “solvertising”.

The four operators are i-mobile Plus Co of Samart I-Mobile, Data CDMA Communication Co, 168 Communication, and The WhiteSpace Co. All are part of CAT Telecom’s MVNO network providing third-generation cellular service on the 850-megahertz spectrum.

It is the first time small and medium-sized telecom operators have formed an alliance.

“The alliance will save costs starting from 5-30 per cent for each company depending on the different companies’ expenses,” said Chaiyod Chirabowornkul, chief executive officer of The WhiteSpace Co and secretary of the Thailand MVNO Club.

Chaiyod said the emergence of MVNO services – those that provide wireless-telecom services for other companies but do have networks of their own – brought many new players into the telecom market and provided new alternatives for niche services for consumers.

He said the model encouraged the creation of new services and special promotions that excited the market and helped drive other related industries.

It is expected that the total number of mobile subscribers using MVNO services will be around 2 million by end of this year.

Watchai Vilailuck, president of Samart Corporation and chairman of the MVNO Club, said the |emergence of MVNOs supported the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission’s telecom-infrastructure sharing |policy while avoiding redundant investments and optimising existing telecom resources including back offices for SIM card management, purchasing, and information-technology systems.

Watchai said Samart was the first company to start an MVNO business. The alliance would provide the MVNO business operation more strength.

The club wants more MVNOs to become members. Currently there are 39 MVNO companies with licences from the NBTC but only around 10 are active.

Nipon Chuchid, president of Data CDMA Communication, the provider of the MYWorld3G brand, said each MVNO had its own niche market. MYWorld3G is targeting GPS (Global Positioning System) truck services and wireless payments. The company forecasts gaining around a million subscribers by the end of this year.

Surapan Meknavin, director of CAT Telecom, said the state agency planned to upgrade its 3G-850MHz service to 4G soon to serve high demand for data communications. Currently CAT’s network has the capacity to serve 4 million MVNO users.

An MVNO enters a business agreement with a mobile network operator to obtain bulk access to network services at wholesale rates, then sets retail prices independently.

MVNO is a viable model for the current mature telecom market in Thailand, with a penetration rate of 145 per cent.

The cost of investing in the telecom industry is excessively high, especially the expense of spectrum bandwidth and infrastructure development. But the MVNO model requires a much lower investment, allowing operators to offer good-quality services at reasonable prices.

The model also has the capacity to access untapped consumer segments, especially in rural areas, and explore opportunities to develop new services. Ultimately, consumers benefit from more diverse service choices and more service providers, and are able to select a service plan from the most preferred provider that best suits their needs and budget.

The company has set up three branch offices in Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam. It will also announce a “Cloud Marketplace” service in April.

Thannasorn Jaidee, general manager of True IDC, said it was looking into setting up new branch offices in Indonesia, the Philippines and Laos this year. After moving into those countries, Singapore and Malaysia are in its sights for expansion.

He said the company invested US$3 million (Bt107 million) to develop infrastructure in Myanmar in order to provide data-centre and cloud solutions. It is also providing cloud solutions and consulting services in Cambodia.

For the Vietnamese market, it expects to provide cloud and consulting services next quarter.

“Indochina is adapting to usage of cloud services and data centres. Meanwhile, Indonesia and the Philippines are seeing continued growth in the cloud-computing market,” he said.

The company will begin offering a new cloud-solution service named Cloud Marketplace in April. The one-stop service will make it easier for small and medium-sized enterprises to do business online and use cloud technology and software to manage their operations.

True IDC expects to reach 3-5 per cent of the country’s 2.9 million SMEs with the new service this year. Fees will start at Bt100 per user per month.

“The Cloud Marketplace will help SMEs save costs and increase productivity by transferring smoothly from traditional to online business so that they will able to expand their customer base via online transactions,” Thannasorn said.

The company this year expects revenue growth of 40 per cent from its data-centre business, and growth of around 30 per cent from its cloud services.

At present, True IDC only gets 3 per cent of its revenue from the international market, but expects that figure to increase in the near future.

Eric Ellenbogen, co-head of DreamWork Classics’ international division, said yesterday that establishing a partnership with Bangkok Entertainment Company would allow Dream Works to reach a mass audience in Thailand after CTH became its first affiliate in Thailand.

Under the partnership with BEC, DreamWorks’ two signature television series, “All Hail King Julien”, starring characters from the film “Madagascar”, and “The Adventures of Puss in Boots” featuring a sword-fighting cat from the “Shrek” franchise, will be broadcast daily on Channel 3 next month.

Ellenbogen acknowledged that after the launch of digital terrestrial TV in Thailand two years ago, the pay-TV business appeared to be affected, particularly the subscriber base. Therefore, the company had to expand into free-to-air to deliver its content to a wider audience in the Kingdom.

“Having Channel 3’s marketing support, we believe that this will help build brand awareness of DreamWorks in the Thai market and advertising-based revenue on top of subscription-based revenue from CTH,” he said.

In the near future, Dream Works aims to have a deeper collaboration with Channel 3, such as co-production and selling merchandise related to the animated TV series.

Motorbikes have long been a popular commuting option in |the Thai capital, which has horrendous traffic jams due to increased car ownership and poor city planning.

Ubiquitous motorbike taxi drivers, found at stands across the city wearing bright-orange jackets, weave in and out of stalled traffic with both skill and knuckle-whitening speed.

An Uber motorbike that collects passengers from their office or home could prove popular with commuters.

But Uber will be up against both Singapore-based Grab Taxi, which began offering a Bangkok motorbike service alongside its cabs last year, and the tens of thousands of regular motorbike taxi drivers who jealously guard their patches.

“I’m really excited to say Thailand is the first country to launch a two-wheeled motorcycle product in all of our cities,” Douglas Ma, Uber’s head of Asia expansion, told reporters.

The US company has become one of the world’s most valuable start-ups, worth an estimated $50 billion (Bt1.7 trillion) and with a presence in 68 countries. But it has faced regulatory hurdles and protests from established taxi operators in most locations where it has launched.

Both Uber and Grab Taxi have shaken up the taxi industry in Bangkok, providing an alternative to the capital’s often-mercurial cabbies, who routinely decline fares or refuse to use their meters.

The company will initially roll out the bikes in three commercial districts and says the fares should be cheaper than regular motorbike taxis.

Uber will focus on Thailand but does not rule out launching similar services in other traffic-clogged Asian megacities like Jakarta and Manila.

“This is the first time we’re doing it in any market in the world, so our hope is to develop it and innovate it,” Ma said.

“If it makes sense, absolutely we want to look at other markets.”

In the thousands

Ma declined to say how many motorbike drivers the company had already signed up but said it was in the thousands.

At a stand in the commercial area of Chidlom, motorbike taxi driver Winai Bunprueng said he was unlikely to join up.

“If I joined the app and I refused to go, they would reprimand or sack me, but for me now, if I can’t agree with passengers on the prices, I won’t go,” said Winai, 37.

Chalerm Changthongmadan, head of the Association of Taxi Motorcyclists of Thailand, said he was concerned by the arrival of start-up competitors.

“I think it will bring conflict among people who do these jobs,” he said.