ENTERTAINMENT
Media Network Retail Co (MNR) has cancelled a plan to buy the rights to the Japanese superhero Ultraman for distribution in Thailand from Tsuburaya Productions despite the settlement of a decade-long legal dispute in the Japanese company's favour.
ALTERNATIVE ENERGY
Thailand should aim to position itself as a global ethanol production hub, said Prasert Bunsumpun, the president and chief executive of the majority state-owned energy giant PTT Plc. The country should leverage its strong agricultural base to become a global leader in biofuels, he said at an Asean energy ministers' meeting yesterday in Bangkok.
Commerce Minister Chaiya Sasomsab pledged yesterday to convince manufacturers to delay raising product prices for another six to eight months to help consumers deal with inflation. On his first day in office after succeeding Mingkwan Sangsuwan, Mr Chaiya also pledged to promote export growth of at least 15% this year, while overseeing prices based on reason and fact.
PROPERTY
The listed developer Quality Houses (QH) has shifted to the lower-priced housing segment and is now developing townhouses priced at 2.3 million baht a unit to be sold in mid-2009.
STOCKS
The Thai stock market is poised to rebound to 700 to 730 points this month, but could drop to as low as 580 afterward as political risk factors peak, according to Tisco Securities. The SET index yesterday rose 1.38% to 676.35 as most regional markets closed higher following sharp gains on Wall Street and lower global oil prices.
INVESTING
Ayudhya Fund Management (AYF) is gearing up to launch a new commodities foreign investment fund expected to offer returns outpacing inflation.
BANKING
United Overseas Bank (Thai) aims to cut its loan-to-deposit ratio by slowing lending activity over the next several months.
The Gold Traders Association has asked securities regulators to delay the introduction of gold futures on the Thailand Futures Exchange. Jitti Tangsitpakdi, the association president, met with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week to ask for the futures delay.
ENVIRONMENT
Most Thai farmers plant trees and simply pray for good prices as their parents did for decades, but Sawai Sangsa-wang realised his trees are more valuable.
Sindicatum (SCC), a London-based carbon credit trading firm, has made an investment worth US$80 million to develop biogas plants from municipal landfill.
CHEMICALS
Henkel (Thailand) Plc, the local unit of the German adhesive, surface treatments and chemical producer, expects its revenue to grow by 10% from two billion baht last year, according to president Chamaiporn Uerpairojkit.
INSURANCE
Deves Insurance Plc, owned by the Crown Property Bureau, expects much greater flexibility and activity to support expansion plans to capture more retail customers after it is delisted from the Stock Exchange of Thailand. ''More active and aggressive marketing activities are definitely anticipated, once the delisting process is completed,'' said president Anant Keskasemsook. ''We expect to become much more flexible in setting aside our expense in marketing and advertising.''
AUTOMOBILES
Toyota hopes to achieve sales of 1,500 units per month for its Fortuner after giving the popular sport utility vehicle (SUV) model a new facelift yesterday. Of the total, about 400 units are expected to run on petrol and the remainder diesel-run units compatible with B5 biodiesel.
An air of uncertainty surrounds whether Orient Thai Airlines and its budget carrier One-Two-Go, now facing a 30-day suspension due to poor safety standards, will be flying again. The relaunch largely depends on whether the carriers can overcome mounting problems related to restructuring and getting licences back from the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA).
HOTELS
Political instability, high inflation and soaring oil prices would push down the revenue growth of the local hotel chain Dusit International to 10% next year, from 18% expected this year.
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Jasmine International Plc, an integrated communications service provider, is spearheading its broadband business into the arena of internet protocol television (IPTV) with a planned commercial launch in October.
TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Number portability _ the ability of consumers to keep the same telephone number even if they switch companies _ is among the issues the National Telecommunications Commission hopes to deal with before its current term expires. The industry regulator also expects to clarify policies on third-generation (3G) mobile phone services and Wi-Max, according to NTC secretary-general Suranant Wongwittayakamchorn.
CONSUMER GOODS
Osotspa Co, the 118-year-old consumer products and pharmaceuticals manufacturer, has set up a new marketing department for health and functional beverages with an allocation of 400 million baht for marketing to expand the customer base.
PROPERTY
The home builder Mika Group missed its sales target in the first seven months of this year due to the impact of a slowing economy and rising material costs.
ENVIRONMENT
Office paper is now a little less harmful to the earth. SCG Paper's new environmentally friendly office paper introduced yesterday is made of 30% fibre obtained from waste and post-consumer materials and 70% farmed tree pulp. Hence, the innovation uses 30% fewer farmed trees than conventional paper.
IN Brief
The MTrack Energy exchange-traded fund will begin trading on the SET today.The three-billion-baht fund (ENGY) will mirror the SET energy index and is managed by TMB Asset Management. The IPO price was 4.11 baht per unit.
