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https://www.nationthailand.com/business/corporate/40019053

Gulf Energy Development Public Company Limited (“GULF”) impressively issued THB 35 billion debentures in August 2022. The fully-subscribed debentures are testaments to investors’ confidence in GULF’s present performance as well as prospects. Such funding will ensure that GULF can smoothly proceed with its plan to expand its businesses both domestically and internationally.

Ms. Yupapin Wangviwat, Chief Financial Officer, GULF, stated, “GULF’s offering of its unsubordinated and unsecured debentures was a huge success and the company raised THB 35 billion as planned. The strategy to split the transaction into 2 offerings within the same month was intentional with the aim to capture a variety of investor types and cater to the different needs of different investor groups. For this transaction, GULF offered the debentures not only to its existing investor base of institutional and high-net worth investors, but also to the general public for the first time, and the debentures were well received by all investors equally.”

Among the THB 35 billion raised, THB 11 billion was placed to institutional and high-net worth investors via book building at the end of July 2022 with subscription dates on August 2-4, 2022. The amount was split between 3 tranches i.e. 3-, 5-, and 10-year tenors with average coupon across all tranches of 3.57% per annum. The remaining THB 24 billion was placed via public offering on August 15-17, 2022 with the tenors of 4 years and 7 years and coupon rates of 3.50% and 3.90% per annum respectively. For each tenor of the public offering portion, investors can choose based on their own preference and convenience between the digital version of the debentures offered through Krung Thai Bank Public Company Limited’s “Pao Tang” Application or the “traditional” version which could be subscribed through 9 financial institutions; Bangkok Bank Public Company Limited, Bank of Ayudhya Public Company Limited, KASIKORNBANK Public Company Limited, The Siam Commercial Bank Public Company Limited, CIMB Thai Bank Public Company Limited, TMBThanachart Bank Public Company Limited, United Overseas Bank (Thai) Public Company Limited, Kiatnakin Phatra Securities Public Company Limited, and Maybank Securities (Thailand) Public Company Limited. The final subscription for digital bonds via Pao Tang was THB 3 billion, while traditional bonds was an immense amount of THB 21 billion.

The overwhelming demand was clear evidence of investors’ confidence in GULF’s strong performance and future growth potential in addition to its good credit rating for both the company and the debentures, which have been rated A (stable outlook) and A- respectively by TRIS Rating Co., Ltd. on June 21, 2022. 

“We would like to thank all investors for their interests in GULF’s debentures. We also appreciated all 10 financial institutions who acted as joint-lead arrangers for their efforts in making this transaction such a success. After this, the company will continue to expand the business in Thailand and overseas to drive sustainable growth,” Ms. Yupapin concluded.
 

Published : August 18, 2022

By : THE NATION

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https://www.nationthailand.com/business/corporate/40019027

Banpu, Thailand’s leading international energy provider, aims to green half of all energy businesses with a comprehensive energy portfolio that can grow despite volatility.

Banpu’s chief executive officer, Somruedee Chaimongkol, said that due to the trend of increasing global energy consumption, electric power generation must be more environmentally friendly.

Banpu will be “Greener & Smarter”, with renewable energy generation and technology solutions accounting for more than half of the company’s earnings by 2025, Somruedee said.

The latest development was revealed during a press conference on the company’s first-half earnings on Wednesday. The company’s operational results showed record strong cash flow and net profit for the first half of 2022, with total sales revenue of US$3.029 billion, a 97 per cent increase over the same period last year.

Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) totalled $1.543 billion, a 165 per cent increase from the same period last year. Net profit rose to $682 million, up 634 per cent compared to the same period last year.

Somruedee said that the robust performance was driven by constantly growing energy demand and tight supply, coupled with the company’s continued expansion of its greener energy portfolio, such as a successful acquisition to expand natural gas production in the US and the collaboration with business partners to build a lithium-ion battery assembly plant to penetrate the electric vehicle market.

“In the year’s first half, we invested in natural gas and related midstream businesses in the United States. We also launched the Carbon Capture and Sequestration project at the Barnett Shale Gas asset in Texas, marking another important step towards improving sustainability in our production processes in line with ESG [environmental, social and governance] principles,” the Banpu CEO said.

Energy resource, energy generation and energy technology are key for Banpu group’s revenue.

The energy resources group, which includes mining and natural gas, performed well due to high global coal prices and rising gas demand. The energy generation group, which is involved in thermal power generation and renewable power generation, is expanding along with cost-controlling measures to manage volatile energy costs.

The energy technology group is now scaling up the portfolio with a focus on expanding product and service offerings to enhance the Banpu ecosystem. The major project is the collaboration with Durapower, a global leader in performance lithium battery storage solutions, and Cherdchai Motor Sales, the largest bus operator in Thailand, to set up lithium-ion battery assembly plant for e-Bus battery systems.

The partnership will capture the growing opportunity in EV markets across Asia-Pacific with a plan to expand its production capacity to 1 gigawatt per hour by 2026. Banpu has also expanded its customer base to Indonesia through its subsidiary in a solar rooftop project with total capacity of 7.27 megawatt peak.

Somruedee added that besides accelerating business growth through the Greener & Smarter strategy, Banpu is creating a new S-Curve by starting its investment portfolio into a US-based Healthcare Fund.

“We will continue to build a comprehensive energy ecosystem with our three main business groups to maintain our long-term strength while lessening the impact of external factors, such as market conditions, the global economy and the tension of international political situations, and keep us well-positioned to forge stable and sustainable growth,” Somruedee said.

Banpu Pcl is operating three core groups of businesses – energy resources, energy generation, and energy technology – in 10 countries: Thailand, Indonesia, China, Australia, Lao PDR, Mongolia, Singapore, Japan, the US and Vietnam.

As of June 30, Banpu’s total assets were worth $12.241 billion, an increase of $1.295 billion from December 31, 2021.

Published : August 18, 2022

By : Nongluck Ajanapanya

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https://www.nationthailand.com/business/corporate/40019026

Is our company in need of digital transformation? It’s a question businesses must address now because Covid-19 has encouraged mass migration to cloud computing, while artificial intelligence is in high demand to ensure competitiveness.

“Banking businesses are visible early adopters of digital transformation. But now many others have found that adopting digital transformation is no longer optional, but a must,” said Taveesak Saengthong, managing director of Oracle Corporation (Thailand) Co Ltd.

Taveesak cited as an example a family-run SME business that was having difficulty managing inventory. Management is an essential component of a well-functioning supply chain.

Excess inventory consumes capital and increases the risk of stock becoming obsolete, whereas insufficient inventory has a negative impact on customer service.

“The company is in the exporting business with dealers in different locations. During the Covid lockdown, they needed to manage inventory costs, but the stocks were all over the place,” he said.

Taveesak Saengthong, Managing Director of Oracle Corporation (Thailand) Co Ltd.

Oracle Corporation (Thailand) was founded in December 1990, and provides database, tool, and application products. The company has developed innovations for cloud computing that speed up migration, provide greater stability and performance for all applications, and provide customers with all the resources.

They provide cutting-edge cloud applications with many services, such as Oracle cloud infrastructure (IaaS), Oracle cloud applications (SaaS), Oracle cloud platform (PaaS), and Oracle data cloud (DaaS).

The impact of cloud computing on the global economy is growing. According to IT research and consultancy company Gartner, as the effects of Covid-19 linger and businesses look to lay a foundation for increased agility and resilience, cloud demand and adoption in the Asia Pacific are expected to surge.

Overall cloud spending in the region is expected to reach US$200 billion by 2024. Spending on cloud services in Thailand is expected to reach 40.8 billion baht in 2022, representing a 36.6 per cent increase year on year.

The company is the only brand in the market to offer developers and business users workloads that are seamless and that satisfy their server, storage, application, and network requirements, Taveesak said.

With the cloud computing market expanding rapidly, vendors such as IBM, Google, Oracle, and Amazon have been catching up quickly.

Oracle has joined the market’s biggest players, which has also aided Oracle’s entry into the healthcare business. It has acquired Cerner, the developer of Electronic Health Record (EHR) software that is used to manage hospital patient data.

As one of the major developers of EHR in the market, Oracle plans to integrate its own Voice Digital Assistant with Cerner’s software to make it easy to use and give doctors quick access to patient data. It is also preparing to launch EHR software on the public cloud.

On January 27, 2010, Oracle Corporation completed its acquisition of Sun Microsystems, which had only been a software vendor prior to the merger. It now owns both of Sun’s hardware product lines, such as SPARC Enterprise, and Sun’s software product lines, including the Java programming language.

“Oracle usually acquires new businesses, literally every month in a year. The acquisition of Sun Microsystems helped support our enterprise systems. For example, a customer may take nine hours to run a system, which will now take only 1.4 hours. That means a huge cost-saving,” said Taveesak.

Oracle’s challenge is to provide its customers with specific technologies that enable them to achieve their commercial goals through their newly acquired abilities to use the cloud computing service, he said.

As a result of this encouragement and opportunity, Oracle customers have made a long-lasting positive impact on both industries and communities, he added.

According to Taveesak, retail is the Thai business sector that will use cloud computing the most. Oracle has volunteered to help businesses operate without worrying about investment due to the need to adapt to its customers in the new normal era.

Recently, CP Group decided to use AI by utilising Oracle’s cloud-based financial accounting system to manage corporate finances effectively in online shopping and in over 2,000 branches, including Lotus Malaysia.

In terms of sustainability, Oracle believes that it is at the heart of business operations, from managing natural resource uses to ensuring responsible supply chain practices and running global sustainable events.

Oracle cloud allows its customers to not only increase business value but also reduce their environmental impact, given the fact that cloud computing and AI are now related to sustainability requirements, he said.

The advantages of environmental, social, governance (ESG) programs can be extended throughout the organisation.

First, the company can save money by reducing waste.

Second, they can protect customers’ human rights and mental health.

Finally, when organisations have a diverse leadership supported by a strong governance framework, employee morale improves and it is easier to retain top talent, Taveesak added.

“Business partners must adhere to ESG standards. It is no longer something ‘nice to have’ or ‘optional to have’ going forward. The benchmark set by ESG is rising to a new level. AI and cloud computing will be vital in the evolution,” he predicted.

Published : August 17, 2022

By : Varunsuda Karunayadhaj

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https://www.nationthailand.com/business/corporate/40019017

Thailand’s Board of Investment (BoI) announced on Wednesday that it had approved 784 projects by both domestic and foreign companies from January to June 2022, a 4 per cent increase year on year.

However, the total investment value in the first six months dropped 42 per cent year on year to 219.7 billion baht.

BoI secretary-general Duangjai Asawachintachit attributed the significant drop in investment to power generating mega projects approved in 2021, which had contributed more than 75.7 billion in investment.

Duangjai said this year’s investments still show significant expansion especially in target industries such as electric vehicles and digital, which have received additional investment of 42.41 billion baht and 1.45 billion baht respectively, expanding 212 and 202 per cent year on year, respectively.

In the first half, the BoI approved 395 projects with foreign direct investment valued at 130.08 billion baht. Taiwan was responsible for the highest investment – 36.1 billion baht – most of which was in automotive and components manufacturing.

Duangjai also said 217 of the approved projects are located in the Eastern Economic Corridor, with total investment of 104.85 billion baht.

Rayong received the most investment – 85.5 billion baht – from 86 projects, followed by Chonburi (16.69 billion baht from 110 projects), and Chachoengsao (2.66 billion baht from 21 projects).

This year the BoI has added four industries in the high technology category, in which approved operators will receive promotional benefits such as corporate tax exemption for 5-8 years.

They are manufacturing of high-precision machines and parts, high precision machine repairs, additive manufacturing of 3D metal printing, and manufacturing of micro technology products.

The board has also adjusted its requirement for investment projects that need to submit a feasibility study – from an investment value of 750 million baht to 2 billion baht – which will help reduce the burden on smaller investors when they prepare application documents.

Published : August 17, 2022

By : THE NATION