Briefs

ING announced yesterday that it had reached an agreement to sell its investment-management business in Thailand to UOB Asset Management.
ING will receive a total cash consideration of  EUR 10 million (Bt393 million) for the business. The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to close in the first half of 2013, does not affect ING’s other businesses in the region.
ING’s investment-management business is among the top three foreign fund-management houses in the country. It manages about  EUR 2.9 billion of assets for local clients, the majority of which are third-party.

PTTEP sure on issue
PTT Exploration and Production yesterday expressed confidence in the success of its plan to raise capital by selling not more than 650 million new shares, worth Bt98 billion. PTT is committed to subscribe to the new shares to maintain its stake in PTTEP at 65.29 per cent, and that will require an additional Bt64 billion from PTT towards the capital increase.
The increased capital will allow PTTEP to expand its business, including new investment projects, for the next three years without the need for a further increase in capital.
The company will announce the price of the new shares on November 30, and will allow existing shareholders to book new shares between December 3 and 6.

First Double Tree
Hilton Worldwide has introduced the first property under its new Double Tree brand in Phuket, to bring the number of properties in Thailand to seven next year.
Double Tree Resort by Hilton-Surin Beach, formerly The Courtyard by Marriott, features 250 rooms. Globally, there are more than 310 properties in 23 countries under the brand.

Move for hotels
Central Plaza Hotel has set a budget of between Bt1 billion and Bt2 billion to acquire new hotels both locally and abroad.
The negotiations will take three to six months to be finalised. In its food business, the company plans to acquire two new restaurant brands, which will be concluded by the end of this year.
Central Plaza currently operates 34 hotels, of which 29 are in Thailand and five abroad. The company also operates 678 restaurants under 12 different brands. It expects its revenue to increase by about 22 per cent to Bt17 billion next year, up from Bt14.5 billion targeted for this year.

Raimon’s land budget
Raimon Land has budgeted of Bt2 billion for next year to buy land on which to develop two or three residential projects worth between Bt4 billion and Bt8 billion per year. This is part of its strategy to boost its revenue to Bt10 billion in 2015.