Briefs

The first meeting of sugar millers of Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, held yesterday in Thailand, reached an agreement to foster collaboration among millers in Asean to boost their bargaining power and prepare for the Asean Economic Community’s inception in 2015. They will start by exchanging R&D information.
The millers from these three countries have combined sugar production capacity of 15 million tonnes out of total 17 million tonnes produced in all Asean countries, versus consumption of 14 million tonnes in the region. - The Nation

TrueVisions seeks EPL rights outside Thailand
TrueVisions aims to win the right to broadcast English Premier League soccer matches not only in Thailand but in more than one Asian market territory, Attapol na Bangxang, the pay-TV operator’s chief programme and content officer, said yesterday.
The bidding for the three-year rights to broadcast EPL matches in Asia begins today. The league divides the Asian market into 30 territories, of which Thailand, Cambodia and Laos are counted as one.
There are at least four qualified Thai bidders – TrueVisions, Cable Thai Holdings (CTH), GMM Grammy, and RS. It is speculated that Bangkok Broadcasting and TV (BBTV), the operator of Channel 7, may jointly bid with one of the contenders.
TrueVisions’ existing three-year EPL broadcasting rights expire next year.
Given the competition this time, the bidding is expected to be fiercer than in the past. The winning bid could be as high as $150 million (Bt4.6 billion) for the next three EPL seasons.

‘SET in the City’ to feature 50 seminars
Fifty intensive seminars by 100 investment gurus will be featured at the Stock Exchange of Thailand’s big annual investment festival “SET in the City” from November 22-25.
Under the concept “Your Investment Vision: The Investment World You Can Access”, the event aims to match the right financial opportunities to investors. This year will focus on encouraging clients to change their investment ideas to catch up with innovation though full-range investment services.
Joining the event are 100 leading financial firms.
SET president Charamporn Jotikathira expects the four-day event to draw more than 150,000 investors and members of the public and initiate more than 19,000 transactions. The “SETactivity” application will also be launched for the iPhone and Android smart phones.
Securities accounts have increased to 763,374 from 63,149 from last year.

‘Fab 50’ event next month

Top executives of companies listed in the Forbes Asia “Fabulous 50” will convene in Macau next month to join the awards ceremony and dinner.
On the list are two companies from Thailand – CP All and Indorama Ventures. The “Fab 50” is a list of the best big publicly traded companies in the Asia-Pacific region, picked from more than 1,000 companies with at least US$3 billion (Bt92 billion) in annual revenue or market capitalisation.
Companies are analysed from several angles, including revenue, earnings, return on capital, share-price movements and outlook for the future.
The gathering will bring together the chairmen, CEOs and senior executives of the award-winning companies to share their insights at an economic roundtable, followed by a gala dinner and awards ceremony to mark their success. – The Nation