The payment is due to the group’s better performance in 2015, with a 123 per cent increase in profits that was driven by the higher revenues of its two digital TV channels.

NMG also revealed its plan to continuously penetrate the digital media market.

In 2014, NMG paid a dividend to shareholders of Bt0.028 per share or Bt92.86 million. The group paid Bt0.02 per share in 2013 or Bt66.05 million.

Duangkamol Chotana, NMG chief executive officer, said the latest dividend payment was in line with the group’s management direction, which aimed to give the best return to shareholders.

She said that in 2015 NMG posted a profit of Bt35.58 million, up Bt19.6 million or 123 per cent on 2014.

The group achieved Bt3.16 billion in revenue last year, up Bt221.3 million or 8 per cent on the previous year.

“The better performance of NMG last year was driven by higher advertising revenue, which was up 12 per cent on the previous year and mainly came from the group’s two digital TV channels, which are Nation TV on Channel 22 and NOW26 on Channel 26,” said Duangkamol.

“We also have seen a greater performance in our distribution service as well as education, which is Nation University. Both businesses showed significant growth at 20 per cent last year, which was driven by the group’s significant investment in the development of its educational curriculum and its focus on providing integrated educational solutions to its students.”

She added that the students also benefited from the group’s standing as the country’s leading media organisation.

Duangkamol said NMG’s sales revenue from its newspapers and pocket books dropped 14 per cent and 34 per cent respectively last year. She said this was due to consumers’ media consumption changing towards digital media.

She said NMG had leveraged that trend by developing a new digital media platform so all the group’s content could be better accessed and became part of consumers’ modern lifestyle, with social media playing a large role in that.

“2016 will be the year that NMG will focus on the penetrating all digital media channels, especially digital TV,” she said.

She said Nation TV had adjusted its news content to be more intensive, quick and relevant so it was considered a leading news station that was strong and reliable.

NOW26 was a digital station that created new experiences, with interesting documentary content such as on nature and travel.

“All the changes and developments will allow us to be closer with individual viewers, which is a key success factor of being effective media in today’s era. We need to bond with audiences by serving all their needs and requirements,” said Duangkamol.

NMG subsidiary Nation Broadcasting Corporation will pay dividend of Bt0.08 per share or Bt42.84 million while another subsidiary Nation International Edutainment will pay Bt0.022 per share or Bt3.74 million.

In Laos, the company plans to open branches in Pakse and Suwannaket in two and three years’ time, respectively, group head Thakorn Piyapan said after visiting its subsidiary, Krungsri Leasing Service, in Vientiane last weekend.

The group is negotiating with a strategic partner in Cambodia and the terms could be finalised for that market this year, with the business commencing operations in 2017, he said.

The business in Cambodia will primarily focus on micro-finance, followed by loans for the purchase of home appliances and mobile phones, First Choice personal loans, and credit cards.

In Vietnam, the company is studying doing business with its parent, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, which holds a 72.01-per-cent stake in Bank of Ayudhya.

Bank of Ayudhya also has a business in Vietnam.

“We target expanding our business in Vietnam within the next three years, focusing on hire purchase for motorcycles and cars, then First Choice and personal loans,” Thakorn explained.

The group is also considering expanding into Myanmar, with the business concentrating on micro-finance, personal loans and First Choice operations.

“Our strategy over the next five years will be to expand our business in CLMV countries [Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam], after seeing strong economic growth in this area,” he added.

Meanwhile, in Thailand this year, Krungsri Consumer Group is targeting overall business growth of up to 12 per cent.

Thakorn said that in terms of credit-card spending, value is estimated to grow by as much as 12 per cent, from Bt260 billion last year, while new personal-loan business should rise by between 6 per cent and 7 per cent from last year’s level of Bt66 billion.

“Our estimates are based on domestic economic growth of 3 per cent for this year,” he added.

Meanwhile, non-performing loans will be maintained at no more than 1.45 per cent for credit cards, and 3.5 per cent for personal loans. Thakorn said the impact from additional household debt arising from lending under the first-car scheme – launched four years ago by the Yingluck Shinawatra-led government – should end this year, as most borrowers would have repaid hire-purchase loans in connection with the programme.

As a result, consumer purchasing power and the ability to repay debt will increase, driving spending via credit cards and the taking out of new personal loans. The improved capacity to repay debt will in turn bring down non-performing loans, he said.

“The government’s measures aimed at boosting spending are also a [positive] challenge for business growth this year,” the group head suggested.

It was the first time he had made a purchase using a consumer loan.

“Normally, I pay by cash to buy products. I have to wait until I have enough savings to make the decision to buy. But when First Choice expanded its business in my country, it became easier for me to buy using their loan,” he said.

Somkhith is one of 2,100 customer accounts of Krungsri Leasing Services Co Ltd, a joint venture between Ayudhya Capital Services Co Ltd, Ayudhya Capital Auto Lease Co Ltd, and Unity Capital Co Ltd.

“Since we established the business in Vientiane on December 2014 with a registered capital of US$3 million, we have provided hire-purchase and consumer loans worth Bt376 million by the end of 2015. Of the total, Bt314 million were new loans provided to our customers last year to a combined 2,100 accounts,” Krungsri Leasing Services managing director Suradej Punturaumporn said.

The company is targeting new loans worth Bt1.03 billion, or total outstanding loans of Bt1.13 billion at the end of this year from 5,060 accounts. Up to 80 per cent of new loans will be for car hire purchase, and the rest for consumer products such as mobile phones, home appliances, computers, notebooks, etc.

Normally, Laotians spend cash to buy all products, but the company has expanded its business and has been pushing hire purchase and consumer loans since December 2014. This push has not only increased the number of customers but also the loan value. They are also good, reliable customers because the lender has zero non-performing loans, he said.

“Our sales have risen 40 per cent after joining hands with First Choice to offer loans to our customers,” said Sudprapai Luengcham of Jiro Coproration Co Ltd, a mobile phone and home-appliances dealer in Vientiane. “Up to 40 per cent of our customers have bought products using First Choice,” she added.

This is the trend and there is great potential for financial business in Vientiane, Suredej said.

The eight brands it will showcase at the fair on February 26 at Italthai Centre Mahachai are Volvo, SDLG, Tadano, Yutong, Bobcat, Dusan, Atlas Copco, and PowerScreen.

The event will unveil the latest products from these brands and provide construction-equipment testing for interested potential customers.

This year, ITI will be focusing on new products for the mining and road-construction industries, the upstream businesses for infrastructure construction, in order to serve the growing demands from these industries in Thailand and elsewhere in the Asean Economic Community.

On display will be backhoes, compactors, roller-compactors and trucks.

For instance, the eco-mode Volvo EC210D is equipped with four work modes and a special “Power Boost Mode” that enables extra-powerful digging performance. The high performance Volvo SD100B compactor can save fuel consumption by 20 per cent.

The new Yutong truck for the mining industry comes with a heavy-duty load container designed for high pressure, high impacts, and high load weights. It is available in three load capacities – 30, 40 and 60 tonnes.

Highlights of after-sales services include a customer-support agreement after termination of insurance coverage (Volvo CSA), a range of re-manufacturing services for genuine parts (Volvo Reman), and a seminar led by a Chevron lubricant expert including performance testing of a lubricant designed specifically for Volvo heavy-duty machinery. Participants will have a chance to win various prizes.

Italthai Industrial is confident that the ITI Fair will generate public awareness of its role as a distributor of high-quality products to serve various demands, and a provider of comprehensive after-sales service with more than 15 branches nationwide and in Laos.

The company hopes this will boost sales and reinforce Italthai Industrial’s image as a leading distributor of world-class construction and industrial equipment and provider of professional after-sales service.

ITI, one of the major businesses under the Italthai Group, has annual sales of Bt4 billion.

SCB wants to expand its SME customer base to one-third of its total loan portfolio by 2020, and the bank acknowledges that housing loans could be a channel to acquire small and medium-sized enterprises as customers.

Housing loans are no longer just a financial product under the new vision but could be a channel to other financial services, including transactions or cash management, she said.

The bank is considering combining credit and non-credit sales of residential projects that are the bank’s partners.

Providing financial advice to customers will help reduce the mortgage-rejection rate, which the bank has tried to maintain at 25 per cent this year because it has to help its developer partners sell homes. However, this does not mean it will relax its lending criteria.

Pikul said SCB had told developers that it had few problems with salaried people, but when dealing with the self-employed, it would scrutinise their ability to make their mortgage payments. Therefore, the bank’s sales staff needed to understand the nature of such customers’ businesses and income structures, and had to be financial consultants as well as salespeople. This year, SCB will use different early-warning systems for salaried customers and the self-employed. These should help the bank predict the likelihood of a loan turning bad in the future.

A similar system will also be used for auto-loan customers, she said.

Meanwhile, SCB is implementing a new digital platform to help make residential developers’ sales more efficient by using databases in each area.

“We must know how many projects are [for example] on Rama V Road and how many units are |sold to customers of SCB and how many sales there are per month,” she said.

SCB has observed that some wealthy people looking at housing as an investment preferred to pay cash, and the bank found that around 60 per cent of condominium buyers did not take out mortgages.

The overall housing loans in the banking industry this year are expected to register flat growth, she said.

Commercial banks last year recorded new housing loans of Bt600 billion, with SCB accounting for Bt115 billion.

Pikul said the bank had maintained a new-housing-loan target of Bt115 billion this year, and net loans are expected to reach |Bt25 billion, so outstanding loans this year should touch Bt600 billion.

Mortgage lending is expected to become more active in April because it is the end of housing transfers under the government’s stimulus scheme.

Ten major property developers have told the bank that their transfers year to date had dropped by 20 per cent compared with the same period of 2015.

Boontan Vanapanthapornkul, a mobile phone subscriber in Phitsanulok, said last week that he ported his mobile phone number from Advanced Info Service’s 2G service to TrueMove H cellular service three times – but all failed. True, he said, sent an SMS to inform him that the porting failure stemmed from AIS allegedly declining to send his data about porting to True.

Another office woman, who wants to swap from Total Access Communication to AIS, said recently that she waited for more than 10 days after making the request to port her number but still could not do it.

According to the National Broadcasting and Telecommu-nications Commission’s porting rule, the porting process should be complete within three days from the first day of the service request.

A telecom industry observer questioned if the difficulty in porting reflects the mobile phone operators’ attempts to retain subscribers with their networks.

The porting process reportedly got much more difficult after True launched a campaign this month to allow porting to its network at 7-Eleven convenience stores around the country.

NBTC deputy secretary general Korkij Danchaivichit said that the NBTC office recently called in True first and later AIS and DTAC as part of its probe into the AIS and DTAC complaint if porting at 7-Eleven convenient stores complies with NBTC rules. AIS and DTAC questioned if the porting at 7-Eleven stores had a proper signing, on formal papers, by people wanting to port their numbers.

The NBTC office will submit the probe result for NBTC telecom committee consideration on February 18.

True reportedly complained to the NBTC that people wanting to port their mobile phone numbers to True often experienced unsuccessful porting. True sent an SMS to such users, saying it is trying to solve this problem. It advised them to contact the NBTC contact centre on 1200 to make a complaint.

Now all three mobile phone operators have launched heavy subsidised handsets and data and voice campaigns to woo rivals’ mobile users to their networks. In the case of AIS, its campaigns aim to move its 11 million 2G subscribers on 900MHz to its 3G and 4G networks.

Earlier AIS offered service on 900MHz before NBTC reclaimed its spectrum for auction last December after its concession expired last September. However, AIS failed to win the licence, prompting it to launch a heavy campaign to migrate 900MHz subscribers to 3G/4G network of its subsidiary Advanced Wireless Network.

According to the three operators, on January this year AIS recorded porting out at 145,000 users, followed by DTAC at 59,000 users and True at 49,000 users.

The facility is being developed to meet the LEED? (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standard as established by a leading US-based authority in green building design.

Upon completion in August, the new distribution centre will hold the distinction of being L’Oreal’s first green distribution centre in Thailand.

Umesh Phadke, managing director, L’Oreal Thailand said that L’Oreal’s mission is to grow sustainably and achieve its business ambitions under “Sharing Beauty With All” -its sustainability commitment for 2020.

“One of the main pillars of this is “Producing Sustainably”, a goal we aim to accomplish by reducing CO2 emission, water consumption and waste by 60 per cent from a 2005 baseline. This target is in line with our collaboration with TPARK to develop our new distribution centre, which features energy and environmental systems designed to meet the LEED standards,” Phadke said.

“We have full confidence in TPARK’s capability to develop high-calibre utilities and infrastructure to fulfil the needs of the logistics industry. And this facility also provides us with an easily accessible location that supports further expansion in Thailand,” he said.

The adoption of more environmentally friendly sites and processes is imperative for the global beauty leading company, and L’Oreal Thailand’s first green distribution site is a key part of this plan. In addition, globally L’Oreal now operates 15 LEED-certified sites including L’Oreal Thailand’s previous office in Bangkok City Tower, which is also classified as an energy-efficient office under the LEED standards.

Patan Somburanasin, managing director of TICON Logistics Park Co, Ltd. (TPARK), said, L’Oreal is one of TPARK’s first customers and has been operating distribution centre facilities in TPARK Bangna for over seven years.

“We placed emphasis on important features such as stability, durability, and flatness of the floor. Furthermore, the energy saving is estimated to be 30-40 per cent compared to conventional building; indoor water consumption is less than 45 per cent compared to standard buildings, and water usage of the landscape is less than 50 per cent of conventional design.

“We also expect to recycle or reuse waste during construction up to 75 per cent of total waste. Furthermore, our ventilation system will provide extra fresh air from the outside of the distribution centre in order to cool down the temperature inside the distribution centre and create a comfortable working environment for the workers. We brought expert consultants into the design process to ensure our customer’s trust,” he said.

Naetchanok Wipatasinlapin, managing director of True4U Station, said yesterday that her station was currently in discussions with Fox International Channels, Sony Pictures, Warner Brothers, MGM, Disney and Columbia Pictures about using this budget to select major movies for screening during its evening prime-time slots.

The move forms part of this year’s strategy to strengthen True4U Station, following on from last month’s announcement of an investment of more than Bt2 billion this year to retain its position as a leader in sports and entertainment programming and to generate at least Bt1 billion in annual revenue, she said.

The company this year is focusing more on sports and entertainment programmes to attract mass audiences in the provinces by dedicating more airtime for live sports tournaments, game shows, dramas, TV series and movies, Naetchanok added.

In addition to this content strategy, the company will prepare a series of on-ground activities both to promote the TV station and to engage with audiences.

Of the total expenditure on this year’s programmes, Bt700 million will be for sports content and licences to telecast more than 200 matches, followed by Bt700 million for local TV dramas and series and Bt600 million for game shows.

“This reflects our ambitious goal to be a leading sports and entertainment channel, and we hope to become No 3 in the digital-TV business by the end of this year,” the managing director said.

Sports

True4U channel will offer sports content during up to 40 per cent of its airtime, an increase from last year’s 30 per cent.

Entertainment programmes, including TV dramas and game shows, will account for 30 per cent, up from 20 per cent last year.

The remaining airtime will be dedicated to news and children’s and family programmes.

She said the company believed that this strategy would help raise the average rating for its digital-TV station to 0.5 point this year, from 0.2 point in 2015.

True4U channel targets Bt1 billion in revenue, compared with Bt700 million last year.