briefs

Government Housing Bank will hold auctions of 3,000 its non-performing assets on July 28. 

The assets – 300 of which are in Greater Bangkok – comprise houses, commercial buildings and land plots. 

Potential bidders for the 300 NPAs can take part in an auction on the 11th floor of GH Bank headquarters in Bangkok, the bank said yesterday, while branches in the Northeast will hold local auctions at their premises, also on July 28. 

Buyers will be able to get discounts of up to 30 per cent on the properties, while first-time home-buyers can benefit from zero-interest mortgages for three years for houses bought for no more than Bt1 million. 

Successful bidders who are not first-time home-buyers will have to put down a 10-per-cent down payment, which they can borrow from GH Bank interest-free for a year. They can apply for mortgages for the remaining 90 per cent with a 30-year repayment period. 

 

Yokohama sells 14% more tyres in H1 

Yokohama Tire Sales (Thailand) sold 166,000 car tyres in the first half of the year, up 14 per cent from the same period last year, manager director Yutaka Furukawa said yesterday. 

The company’s market share now stands at 5 per cent, he said, adding that one of the factors contributing to the success is the growing Thai economy. 

It is expected that the overall domestic market this year will be more than 8 million tyres, divided into 6 million for passenger cars and 2 million for sport-utility vehicles. 

 

Record sales month for Ford Thailand 

Ford Thailand yesterday announced its all-time best monthly sales performance, with overall June retail sales jumping 71 per cent year on year to 5,031 units. 

The performance, which topped the company’s best-ever sales in May, was driven by record sales for both the Ranger pickup and the Fiesta subcompact. The all-new Ranger continued to gain traction as a clear segment leader with retail sales that soared 280 per cent from the previous-generation Ranger in the same month a year ago, to 2,354 units. 

Strong demand has helped drive overall customer bookings for the all-new Ranger in Thailand to more than 25,000 units, the company said. 

The Fiesta also delivered a record performance last month, with overall retail sales increasing more than 25 per cent to 2,501 units.

 

Carat tops RECMA media agency table

RECMA (Research Company evaluating the Media Agency Industry) recently revealed the outcome of its latest “Network Diagnostics Qualitative Evaluation”, with Carat heading the league table again.

The study, which was conducted across 192 agencies in 12 countries around the world, took into consideration four major performance areas achieved by each agency: competitiveness – how successful the agency was in pitch participation; momentum – the growth in billings, management stability, recruitment of new talent and promotion, and major awards won; resources – how the agency staffed up for its mainstream and diversified services such as digital and out of home; and client profile – whether the agency’s portfolio was well balanced between big international clients and sizeable local roots, and how well each performed in retaining its top 15 clients. 

“With the consumer at the heart of everything, every day in the business is for us to find a sharper, faster and more cost-efficient solution to the challenges our clients are facing. Moving with speed is an intrinsic quality of our operations,” said Vichai Suphasomboon, Carat Thailand CEO.