Briefs

The Bt2-trillion borrowing bill is likely to face final vetting by Parliament in August, as the legal interpretation is still underway.

   PM’s Office Minister Varathep Rattanakorn said on Wednesday that if it could not be submitted to Parliament during the extraordinary meeting on May 29-30, the final vetting would take place at the ordinary session, which will reopen in August.

There was a plan to have the bill vetted in May at the same time when the screening of the 2014 budget bill takes place. 

 

Thaicom extends iPSTAR contract

Satellite operator Thaicom recently extended the iPSTAR broadband satellite’s bandwidth leasing contract to TOT for another eight years, running from this year until 2021. The renewed deal also sees TOT’s lease of greater bandwidth from iPSTAR, but the company declined to specify the bandwidth amount.

TOT has been Thaicom’s exclusive national service operator to distribute IPSTAR bandwidth in Thailand.

 

TV sales plunge amid wait for digital era

Power Buy has seen a 20-per-cent contraction in sales of television sets, as consumers wait for products with a built-in digital TV tuners.

   The sales of TV sets at Power Buy had dropped as consumers were reluctant to spend money on them, pending the completion of the regulations of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission regarding terrestrial digital TV.

   It was found that consumers preferred waiting to buy a TV with built-in digital TV functions to purchase of digital set-top boxes.

 

Back to School deals at Big C

Big C Supercentre has launched a “Back to School” promotion to sell student uniforms at 20-40 per cent lower than normal price to help reduce spending for parents. The price of student shirts starts at Bt39 per item, lower than last year’s Bt42. 

Wiboonlasana Ruamraksa, director-general of the Internal Trade Department, said that although a student-uniform producer had asked for a price increase, most producers and retailers had not increased the prices for student uniforms this year. 

 

Jefferies ties up with Asia Plus

Jefferies a global investment banking firm, announced that it was entering an alliance with Asia Plus Securities. Under the agreement, Asia Plus will provide equity research on companies in Thailand, which Jefferies will distribute on a co-branded basis to the firm’s global base of institutional clients. The alliance, in which Asia Plus will also provide local equity-broking services to Jefferies clients, is expected to begin operating before the end of the year.

Asia Plus is one of Thailand’s top financial services firms and offers a wide array of services from equity research, securities brokerage, investment banking, equity derivatives to asset/wealth management.