Briefs

Vendors at Bangkok’s Rod Fai Market yesterday held a protest at the site of the demolished market demanding the right to stay and sell goods for another six months, saying they planned to hold more negotiations with the landlord, State Railway of Thailand, soon.
The protest followed Tuesday’s demolition of stalls at the market by an SRT-hired contractor to clear the site for construction of the Skytrain’s Red Line (Bang Sue-Rangsit).
Previously the vendors had asked the SRT for permission to stay on for another six months to give them time to find a new place to peddle their wares, but the SRT told them to take it up with the company that was granted the Red Line concession.

BAY climbs 3.62%
Bank of Ayudhya (BAY)’s stock price yesterday gained 3.62 per cent to close at Bt35.75, amid fluctuating trading volume as investors speculated ahead of major shareholder GE Capital International Holding’s planned sale of nearly its entire shareholding of 25.33 per cent in the bank.
Brokerage houses have reported that GE will unload its shares in |BAY by the end of this month.

TV auction rules
The board of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission yesterday approved the final draft regulations of the auction of the 24 licences to operate commercial terrestrial digital TV channels.

Kiatnakin debenture issue offers 3.58% rate
Kiatnakin Bank will issue debentures worth up to Bt3.5 billion with a tenor of three years, offering a fixed rate of 3.58 per cent per annum. The interest is payable every six months.
The bank said in a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission that the funds from the debentures would be used for business expansion and capital restructuring to deal with the terms of loans.
Tris Rating has assigned an “A-/positive outlook” rating to the proposed debenture issue. Phatra Securities is the underwriter for the debentures, which are being offered to institutional investors until May 28.

‘Fast-growing’ destination
Thailand remains a popular leisure and backpacker destination for many Europeans seeking to escape the cold winter at home, according to Hotels.com’s Hotel Price Index (HPI). The tourism industry continues to be an important part of the Thai economy. The country was hit badly by the floods of 2011 but has bounced back with an increase in international tourist arrivals last year, making Thailand one of the fastest-growing countries for the travel and hospitality industry.
Bangkok remains the most popular Thai destination for overseas travellers in both the leisure and business sectors. Tourists also travel down to the southern beach resorts and islands. This area accounted for three of the six top HPI destinations, with the islands of Phuket and Samui ranked at Nos 2 and 3 and Krabi at No 5. The last three places in the table were filled by Koh Pha-ngan, home to the full-moon parties, Koh Phi Phi and Koh Tao.
The North is the main region for trekking and adventure travel with its forested mountains, and Chiang Mai reached No 6 in the 2012 list.
“International tourism is on the rise in Asia,” said Rajiv Malhotra, head of marketing, Southeast Asia, Hotels.com. “Looking forward, two mega-trends are affecting Asia positively in 2013 and beyond: the continued rise of Chinese outbound travellers and the increase in low-cost carriers across Asia. China stayed top of the source countries, followed by Malaysia, Japan, Russia and South Korea.
“Thailand is one of the fasting-growing countries as a top tourist destination, with 21 million foreign visitors in 2012. Travellers from all over the world seek out Thailand for its weather, cultural attractions, and variety of travel destinations, with Bangkok and Phuket ranked as the most popular destinations for travellers from [mainland] China, Hong Kong, Australia, and New Zealand.”

New KTAM fund
Krung Thai Asset Management has launched “KTAM SET Commerce ETF Tracker”, the first exchange-traded fund in Thailand that tracks the Stock Exchange of Thailand’s Commerce Sector Index.
Somchai Boonnamsiri, chief executive officer of KTAM, said the fund’s initial-public-offering period would be May 27-31, with a registered fund size of Bt3 billion and minimum investment of Bt5,000 (multiples of Bt1,000). The fund’s policy is to invest in stocks of the companies that are constituents of the SET Commerce Sector Index. The fund will register in the SET on June 11 with the ticker ECOMM.
The fund offers investors the opportunity to obtain returns that link to the movement of the SET Commerce Sector Index before expenses. It is flexible with real-time trading on the SET. The price per unit is about Bt6 and can be obtained instantly without having to wait until the end of the day like other traditional mutual funds. In addition, the fund’s policy allows for dividend payment of up to four times per year. Asia Plus Securities is the underwriter for this fund.
The SET Commerce Sector Index consists of stocks of commercial businesses that are listed in the Thai bourse. Currently, the index consists of 16 companies such as Big C Supercenter, Home Product Centre, Siam Makro and Robinson Department Store.
The Commerce Sector Index is a market-capitalisation-weighted price index, which contributed to about 10 per cent of the SET Index as of April 30.