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Hay Group appoints new Director for Thailand
Ms Thanita Khomphatraporn has been appointed Director of Hay Group Thailand,
with responsibility for consulting businesses and helping them build
effective organizations. She will also be in charge of business development
for Hay Group in Thailand.
 Ms
Thanita Khomphatraporn - the new Director of Hay Group Thailand.
Thanita is a graduate of the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania,
with dual majors in finance and strategic management. Prior to joining the
Hay Group, Ms. Thanita, a fluent speaker of Japanese, Thai and English, was
Director of Business Development at PricewaterhouseCoopers. She has over 10
years of experience in strategic management, operations, finance, sales, and
customer relations at leading international and domestic companies.
Hay Group is a global consulting firm with 88 offices in 47 countries, and
over 7,000 clients across the world, including many companies on The Eastern
Seaboard. For more information about Hay Group, please visit
www.haygroup.com/th
Thai stock to privatise, study to conclude mid-2008
Realising both fiercer competition and a possible decline of
interest in the Thai bourse, the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) is conducting
a study into the possibility of privatising its operations, the SET president
Patareeya Benjapolchai said recently.
Speaking during a seminar in Pattaya, Mrs. Patareeya said the SET had decided to
hire a foreign expert to conduct a feasibility study on privatising itself. The
study is expected to be completed in mid-2008.
She said the decision to hire a foreign expert rather than a local person to
conduct the assessment was made out of concern covering a range of issues,
including stock allocations, the structure of the SET’s board, and gains to be
made from privatisation.
There are three alternatives in privatizing Thailand’s capital market, she said:
becoming a part of world equity markets, cooperating with regional markets, or
remaining idle - which would lower the role of the capital market in relation to
global markets.
The SET has to boost its efficiency by expanding securities businesses as well
as controlling costs while it has to amend certain rules which would help the
market grow faster, said Mrs. Patareeya.
She cautioned however that transactions conducted between securities firms
without passing through the SET, the designated central clearing house for
Thailand’s stock trading, are quite worrisome. (TNA)
30 per cent reserve requirement still necessary: Bank of Thailand
The 30 per cent capital reserve requirement imposed by the
Bank of Thailand (BoT) last December to stem speculation on the Thai baht must
still be continued due to currency volatility and huge foreign capital inflows
into the country, said BoT governor Tarisa Watanagase.
The central bank has no plan to waive the requirement as Thailand’s currency is
still moving in a volatile manner and the BoT plans to monitor foreign capital
inflows into the country in 2008 before taking specific action, said Mrs.
Tarisa.
The Thai baht has gained six per cent against the greenback since early November
last year up till now, and that is in line with other regional currencies
including the Singapore dollar, the Malaysian ringgit and the Chinese yuan while
some currencies in the region have appreciated even higher, she said.
Touching on the continued rising oil prices in the world market, Mrs. Tarisa
said concerned authorities would have to monitor the price movements closely as
the impact would affect the US economy and Thailand, which has the largest oil
consumption in SE Asia.
The demand for oil may fall if global oil prices soar sharply and countries must
adjust their economies, she said.
Meanwhile, Prasarn Trairatvorakul, chief executive officer of Kasikornbank, said
his bank had projected that if the price of Brent crude oil in 2008 stays at
US$77 a barrel, it would allow inflation in Thailand to rise to 2.5 per cent and
gross domestic product (GDP) to grow to around 4.5-6 per cent. In addition, if
the Brent crude oil price rises to US$80 a barrel, Thailand’s GDP would decline
to between 4-5.3 per cent, and inflation would increase to 3.5 per cent and
BoT’s interest rate policy would be affected as well, said Mr. Prasarn. (TNA)
Heiler (Siam) make short work of Rembrandt Hotel
This photo shows Simon P.
Rindlisbacher and Martin Fuenkner, Managing Director of Heiler (Siam) Ltd., with
their supporting teams.
Heiler (Siam) Ltd., the German manufacturer of quality,
custom built frameless glass shower doors was recently contracted by the
Rembrandt Hotel in Bangkok to supply the bathroom screens for all the hotel’s
guest rooms. The Rembrandt was undergoing an intensive enhancement program on
their room facilities to include flat screen TVs and upgraded bathrooms.
Simon P. Rindlisbacher, Executive Assistant Manager of the Rembrandt Hotel said:
“Dealing with Heiler was certainly a pleasure - they were trouble free and
reliable - everything went smoothly and work was completed in just 10 days. We
stayed in our budget and could focus on other matters as Heiler took care of
everything by themselves.”
Oil smuggling from Malaysia on the rise
Oil smuggling from Malaysia into southern Thailand is
increasing as the cost of oil in the kingdom has risen in line with soaring
global oil prices, a senior Thai government customs officer said last week.
Rakop Srisupa-rt, chief of southern customs office, said Thai customs officials
along the Thai-Malaysian border last month seized more than 50,000 litres of oil
smuggled from Malaysia, a jump of almost double from the corresponding period of
2006.
Smugglers have also changed tactics in smuggling oil from Malaysia into Thailand
by enlarging private automobile fuel tanks, said Mr. Rakop. Officials have
seized both the fuel tanks and cars for legal actions.
But oil smuggling activities continue to be on the rise, especially in the
province’s Padang Baesar and Sadao districts. (TNA)
Bangkokians heaviest debts are plastic
Soaring inflation has forced many Bangkok residents to live
in heavy debt, and their major creditors are credit card issuers, according to a
report by Kasikorn Research Center.
The Kasikorn survey among 1,450 Bangkok residents with a monthly earning of
Bt15,000 per month or less found that most faced heavy compound interest debt
arising from the use of credit cards followed by mortgages for homes, and
hire-purchase buying of automobiles or motorcycles by monthly installment.
Of the total debt, the survey showed that those earning less than Bt15,000 month
must pay as much as 52.6 per cent for their credit card debts, 21.1 per cent for
debts outside the formal legal system, 15.8 per cent for monthly installments to
buy motorcycles and 5.3 per cent for housing loans.
For Bangkok households with monthly earnings of over Bt15,000, their debts
incurred from the extended use of credit cards stand as high as 40 per cent
followed by 28 per cent on payment of housing loans, 24 per cent on monthly
installment for the purchase of cars and 4 per cent on monthly installment to
buy motorcycles.
Insufficient income, indicated by 37.2 per cent of the respondents, was the main
factor forcing people living in Bangkok to live in debt, said the report.
(TNA)
NLA to deliberate special
Foreign Business Act provisions
The National Legislative Assembly was due to deliberate
special provisions of the Foreign Business Act this week, designed to help
long-term foreign business residents in Thailand.
NLA member Somchai Sakulsurarat said that the FBA has been amended to
prevent nominee management by foreign businesspersons, not to control them.
He conceded though that some definitions in the amended document have been
given such comprehensive attention that observers are concerned it will
discourage foreign investment. He said that improvements should be made for
more conciseness and accuracy of the definitions to ensure transparency and
fairness to all parties.
Somchai said the definition of “management control” in the amended FBA is
given to consider whether foreign shareholders have the absolute power to
decide on various key matters of a business over Thai shareholders.
It would have nothing to do with normal business management, he said, adding
that many kinds of businesses in Thailand needed to count on foreign
management skills, particularly in fields where Thai personnel had no
expertise.
“We welcome all foreign investors who want to run businesses in our country
with their goodwill. But if they secretly run business through nominees, we
have no choice but to intervene,” he said.
He added NLA would deliberate a special provision of the FBA this week to
give assistance to foreign business persons running business honestly before
the amended act came into force.
The amendment to the 1999 FBA came into the spotlight after the Shin Corp
buyout by Singapore’s Temasek Holdings from the family of ousted prime
minister Thaksin Shinawatra in January 2006.
The FBA covers three lists of business sectors deemed critical to national
security - subject to the degree of protection. The most protective category
is List 1 sectors, which include media, rice farming, forestry and sectors
linked to national security. (TNA)
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