Chairman and chief executive officer Varavuth Jentanakul said his company anticipated that the 12 TV shows it produces for Channel 7 HD, MCOT HD, Channel 3SD and True4U channel would receive very good feedback, with an average audience rating of 3.21 points per hour.

Giving this high rating, Zense Entertainment is able to attract a number of advertisers and sponsors to its TV shows.

“Our key strategy is that we must offer the best shows in response to real demand from audiences while helping our partner broadcasters sustain long-term business growth in terms of TV ratings and revenue,” Varavuth said.

The company makes four game shows – “Still Standing Thailand”, “Spelling Star”, “The Money Drop Thailand” and “Sing Your Face Off Season 2” – a variety show called “Jedsarati”, and the TV series “Code Hunter” for market leader Channel 7 HD.

For MCOT HD, the company produces four game shows – “Step Right Up”, Do Me a Favour”, “Asean Together” and “Horo Game” – and a situation comedy named “Ha Company Unlimited”.

It supplies the “Ban Praram 4” news variety show and “Honeymoon Flight” variety talk show to Channel 3SD and “The 60 Seconds Game” to True4U station.

Varavuth said his company was pitching several projects to TV stations and hoped that three of them would be selected for airing in the second half of this year.

He said that two years after its establishment in 2009, his company with 130 experienced staff had been developing its own TV formats for export to neighbouring countries.

For this year, Zense has earmarked about Bt300 million for TV production and operations. It aims to earn at least Bt400 million in revenue from its existing 12 shows, up from Bt280 million last year. Of total revenue this year, 80 per cent will come from selling advertisements and the rest from TV production.

The CEO also said that if the company is able to complete its three studios by the final quarter of the year, this could reduce its TV production costs by 10-15 per cent. The company now rents studios from other companies to produce its shows.

They will talk about and how organisations can maintain a competitive advantage amid disruptive change, as in a very short period the Internet has re-imagined and disrupted markets, and continues to do so. The majority of those responsible for this are the new entrants, the start-ups.

This is a fast-paced process accountable for massive restructuring of corporate structures and a frequently changing landscape.

The event will take place from 6.45pm at the Bangkok Marriott Sukhumvit Hotel (Thong Lo Skytrain Station). The cost with dinner is Bt2,800 for a non-member or Bt2,300 for a member. You can register online at HBSATH on Eventbrite or e-mail to admin@hbsath.com.

He will keep his predecessor’s policies of expanding in Asean and increasing the group’s capacity for innovation and value-added products.

Roongrote, who succeeded Kan Trakulhoon, the president and CEO for a decade, at the beginning of this year, told his first press conference that considering the market and competition, SCG should continue to focus on the Asean market and focus more on high value-added products (HVAs).

SCG might intensify its research and development (R&D) efforts, while rolling out more HVA products to other Asean markets.

Last year SCG boosted its R&D spending 30 per cent to a record Bt3.5 billion, or 0.8 per cent of sales. This year it plans to increase its R&D budget to exceed 1 per cent of sales.

However, sales from HVA products and services last year dropped 4 per cent to Bt161.85 billion, or 37 per cent of total sales. Meanwhile, SCG reported to the Stock Exchange of Thailand that its board of directors yesterday approved the proposal of its wholly owned subsidiary SCG Building Materials to acquire the remaining 15 per cent of the Prime Group and related assets in Vietnam for Bt2.19 billion.

Prime Group is the largest ceramic tile manufacturer in Vietnam with sales of Bt8.3 billion in fiscal 2015.

SCG saw its operating profit leap 35 per cent to Bt45.4 billion last year, thanks to the wide margins for petrochemical products. Sales slipped 10 per cent to Bt439.6 billion on a big decline in oil prices, which pounded the prices of petrochemicals.

Increased competition and flat demand in the home market were the major reasons for the sluggish performance of the group’s cement and building materials business, whose earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation fell 8.6 per cent.

“Considering additional production capacities and the market outlook [for the cement and building material business] will continue to face challenges in the next one to two years. It will require high management capability,” he said.

SCG will continue to look for ways to boost energy efficiency and workforce productivity and to apply more automation and mechanics in its operations.

Its US$4.5-billion (Bt161 billion) petrochemical-complex project in Vietnam will be delayed by at least six months while it looks for another partner by the first half of this year, after Qatar Petroleum dropped out.

The Thai economy is expected to perform better this year if the government can push its infrastructure projects ahead as scheduled. This would inject more money into the economic system during the second half of this year.

It is difficult to predict the margins of petrochemical products this year as oil prices were volatile and tumbled by about 10 per cent in less than a month.

Thanks to the start-ups of its cement plants in Cambodia, Indonesia and Myanmar, SCG’s sales from its Asean operations are expected to grow by about 20 per cent this year from Bt47.17 billion last year.

Index Living Mall has franchised stores in three countries in the region, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam.

Managing director Kridchanok Patamasatayasonthi said the company aimed to double the contribution from AEC markets from 5 per cent of its total revenue currently to about 10 per cent by 2020. The company posted Bt9.5 billion in total revenue last year, up 5 per cent over 2014.

“Our market expansion through international franchisees is the result of growth in the home-furnishing and accessories retail sectors among Asean member countries. Other positive factors, including the bustling economic outlook, rising gross incomes, and similar customer behaviour, helped to accelerate our decision to look for investment opportunities in new markets such as our neighbouring countries within Asean,” she said.

The first Index Living Mall there had a soft opening last month in Ho Chi Minh City, occupying 7,000 square metres of retail space. Located at Vincom Mega Mall Thao Dien, the store cost more than Bt200 million and is expected to achieve Bt350 million in sales in the first year.

The Vietnamese franchisee VinDS also expects to open 10 Index Living Mall stores in major cities in Vietnam, including Ho Chi Minh, Hanoi and Da Nang, within five years.

Vietnam

“Economic growth indicators show that the Vietnamese retail market is No 2 in Asia, after only China,” Kridchanok said.

“During the first half of 2015, the Vietnamese economy posted 6.28-per-cent growth, the highest since 2008. With a population of 90 million, this will continue to grow, thanks to per capita income rising more than 10 per cent over the past decade.”

She said it was expected that the number of Vietnamese earning a medium income of 15 million dong (Bt24,000) per month would increase from 12 million in 2013 to 33 million by 2020.

“The rise of middle-income earners will help propel demand for middle-to-upper-segment products and services, especially within major cities, because of higher purchasing power and metropolitan buying behaviour.”

Ekaridhi Patamasatayasonthi, director for international business development at Index Living Mall, said the company’s venture into Vietnam highlighted its marketing direction to tap into emerging CLMV (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam) markets, aimed at strengthening its leadership position in the home-furnishings and accessories retail market in Asean.

“We have also underlined our strategic partnership plan to acquire more market share in the region,” he said.

Ekaridhi said the company planned to open its first Index Living Mall store in Manila in September via a joint venture with SM Retail, a Philippine business conglomerate in the shopping-mall operator, property-development, banking and retailing businesses. Index Living Mall owns a 30-per-cent stake in the joint venture, while the majority 70-per-cent stake is owned by SM Retail.

In Malaysia, the company last year opened its first home-furnishing store in Putrajaya via a joint venture with AEON Co. The company plans to open three more stores in Malaysia this year – in Kuala Lumpur in March, Kota Bharu in April, and Johor Bahru in the fourth quarter of this year.

Ekaridhi said Index Living Mall had six franchised stores in five countries, namely Malaysia, Russia, Maldives, Nepal and Vietnam. The company also has dealers in Myanmar and Laos.

In Thailand, Index Living Mall currently operates 25 stores in 17 provinces, of which nine are in Bangkok. The company plans to invest Bt470 million this year to open two new stores in Nakhon Pathom and Chachoengsao.

The company expects to post Bt10 billion in revenue this year and to grow its annual sales by 10 per cent over the next five years.