He added that its portfolio of loans to real-estate sector, which stands at Bt30 billion at present, is expected to expand 10 per cent this year.

Sammit explained that there has been low growth in new loans given to the real-estate sector, due mainly to a slow down in the development of new projects in response to a slowing economy and a supply glut in the market. However, he said, some developers still sought loans to purchase land for projects they plan to introduce in the next two years.

He added that tapping major developers means KKP’s loan portfolio is healthy given that the borrowers are financially stable and can repay. has continued to grow thanks to its focus on major real-estate players, especially those listed in the stock exchange, Sammit Sakulwira, the bank’s first executive vice president and head of commercial lending group, said.

The campaign “KKC Khongkwan Clinic 13 Years Anniversary” will be organised under the theme “Reborn, Rebody, Rebeauty” to showcase its “holistic beauty innovation”.

The clinic expects to form a partnership with new investors who have a similar business philosophy.

The beauty clinic is confident in the purchasing power of women of all ages, transgenders and men who are beauty-conscious , and plans to target more high-end customers.

Khongkwan Clinic said it has enjoyed 15-20 per cent business growth so far and expects to end the fourth quarter of 2019 with 25 per cent growth in net profit despite stronger competition.

Dr Khongkwan Fujitnirun, CEO of Khongkwan Clinic, said beauty treatment is a specific business with the focus on service, reputation and understanding. “As changes evolve every day, we adjust and grow our business via many marketing channels from online, customer referral, to free coupons to customers. Moreover, we use new innovations and technologies with safety and quality guarantees from overseas to satisfy our patients.”

“We are aware of the fake medicine issue. Khongkwan Clinic has invested more money to develop its own innovations. We are not confined to only botox fillers, laser or thread lifting, but also in developing holistic treatments combined with anti-ageing,” Khongkwan said.

She said the investment to develop holistic innovations with a foreign partner wrre in the negotiation stage.

“We can say that several equipment and materials are imported from the world’s best sources in US and Germany. Khongkwan Clinic has plans to open new clinics under new brands in three cities in China — Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. We are also eyeing Indonesia,” Khongkwan said.

Khongkwan said they now have 17 clinics in Thailand and Laos. This year, Khongkwan Clinic is speeding up to form partnership with foreigners in order to get innovations. “The partnership will help us grow and have more services and Khongkwan Clinic will become an integrated medical beauty clinic for surgery, aseptic, anti-ageing, plastic surgery and cell therapy, which is the newest technology from the US and Germany under negotiation. The clinic expansion will be made to targe the high-end segment.”

Khongkwan expects the clinic to be among the top five beauty clinics in Thailand.

He added that most of the programme content partnership contracts between MCOT’s Family Channel 14 and its partners had already expired on June 30 this year.

After the closure of the Family channel, MCOT would still run one channel, the high-definition Channel 30.

In May this year, six broadcasters informed the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) of their intention to hand back the seven licences they had secured from the NBTC. May 10 was the deadline for broadcasters to declare their intention.

The six broadcasters are: Spring News Television Co Ltd (for Spring News Channel 19) and Nation Multimedia Group (for Spring 26, formerly NOW26). The others are Bright TV (Channel 20), Voice TV (Channel 21), MCOT (Family Channel 14) and BEC Multimedia (Family Channel 13 and 3SD Channel 28).

Spring 26, Spring News and Bright TV shut down their channels at midnight on August 15. Voice TV was switched off at midnight on August 31.

BEC Channel 28 and Channel 13 leave the airwaves at midnight on September 30.

All these channels get compensation from the NBTC after they are shut down.

After their exits, there will be 15 channels left in the crowded market.

The NBTC awarded 24 commercial digital TV licences via auction in December 2013, raising around Bt50.862 billion in bid payments. Their 15-year licences were good from April 25, 2014. However, the broadcasters found it difficult to survive due to unfavourable market conditions, coupled with brutal competition from formidable online media channels.

The success was a reflection of the company’s strong commitment to implementing its sustainability vision and policies, and enhancing people’s lives through digital solutions, AIS said.

AIS has been selected as a member of the DJSI family for 2019, both in the World Index and Emerging Market Index in the telecommunication services sector.

AIS chief executive Somchai Lertsutiwong said that it was an honour that AIS was named a member of DJSI for 2019, an internationally acclaimed benchmark index for business with sustainable development practices.

“As a leading digital life service provider in Thailand, AIS has utilised its strengths and fundamental infrastructure through innovative, trusted, eco-friendly and responsible digital products and services to enhance the quality of Thai lives and to meet customers demand,” Somchai said. “This will lead to new knowledge and inspiration and also to produce positive and sustainable returns for all stakeholders, which will lead to sustainable growth for Thailand,” he added.

Somchai said the achievement had become possible because of the efforts of the whole organisation towards corporate sustainability development. “We have constantly put our efforts on sustainable development to drive sustainable organisational structure, and being in line with the DJSI international standards benchmark.”

The DJSI is a set of internationally recognised indices of companies with outstanding sustainability performance, which is created jointly by S&P Dow Jones Indices and RobecoSAM as a global sustainability benchmark. It tracks the stock performance of the companies in terms of economic, environmental and social criteria. It is selected from 3,500 companies in the financial markets, who are invited to participate in the corporate sustainability assessment. All DJSI-certified companies tend to deliver sustainable returns to investors.

The trade war between the United States and China and the appreciation of the baht against other currencies have started to impact large corporates, say bankers.

Although large corporates are resilient to any impact and their ability to repay debt remained sound compared with small and medium-sized enterprises, the prolonged trade war had started to impact revenue and sales of large corporates, said Wasin Saiyawan, senior executive vice president and chief of wholesale banking at Siam Commercial Bank.

Also, the depreciation of the Chinese yuan against the baht had reduced exports to China for some corporates. This had  led to a year-on-year decline in income for these corporates, he said. So the bank has to take care of clients to ensure their ability to repay debts would not be affected.

He did not expect growth in lending to large clients. Currently outstanding loans to large corporates stand at Bt900 billion, according to Wasin. Bad debts or non-performing loans (NPLs) account for 1 per cent of total loans and the bank would try to prevent it rising over 2 per cent, he added.

Senathip Sripaipan, chief wholesale banking officer at TMB Bank, said that some large corporates have delayed investments, especially in overseas projects, because of the impact of the slow growth of the global economy and the ongoing trade war.

The bank is worried about large agri-business firms. The bank has not yet seen signs of debt default or rising bad debt. “But we have to closely monitor them,” he added.

Payong Srivanich, president and CEO of Krungthai Bank, said that some big businesses have started to cut their capacity utilisation from full utilisation to about 70 per cent. Some property developers have also delayed their investments in new projects, he added.

Pornchai Padmindra, co-head for wholesale banking and head of corporate banking and investment banking at CIMB Thailand, said that the trade war and the global slowdown had some impact on large firms.

Some of them have started to relocate their production base to avoid the impact of tariff hikes. “Big corporates could export their products to new markets,” he added.