Briefs

Islamic Bank of Thailand or IBank plans to use the loan loss provisions of the Finance Ministry instead of the Bank of Thailand (BOT) regulations, to improve its capital adequacy ratio (CAR).
Due to bad debt, the CAR ratio at IBank is currently minus 16 per cent against the 8.5 per cent required by the BOT. IBank wants to see its CAR return to 16 per cent by using excess reserves of Bt15 billion, which would be added to its capital, said Thongrop Danampai, chairman of IBank’s executive committee.
“The problem of minus CAR is due to money reserved for loan loss provisions,” he said.
Bad debt at IBank amounts to more than Bt38 billion or 34.28 per cent of outstanding loans, of which the bank has reserved Bt28 billion for loan loss provisions. The loan loss provision must also be Bt13 billion to comply with the regulations of the Finance Ministry.
Under the supervision of the BOT, IBank must reserve loan loss provisions of Bt21 billion.

2nd Unilever plant
Unilever plans to open a second factory in Myanmar later this year under a Bt20-billion 10-year investment plan. The food giant opened its first Knorr-seasoning factory there in June.
Bauke Rouwers, chairman of the Unilever Thai Group of Companies, refused to give any details yesterday about its second factory, saying only that it would open by the end of this year.
“We [Unilever Thailand] have provided technological support and training for operations in Myanmar. The company recently sent 20 Myanmar employees working in Thailand to go and train local staff in Myanmar. We plan to hire more than 2,000 people in Myanmar over the next two years,” he said.

Energy Reform invests for first |exclusive dealership in Bangkok
Energy Reform, an importer and distributor of quality natural gas equipment from Italy, is strengthening its leadership in the Thai market by investing Bt16 million to set up the first exclusive dealership as a world-class prototype and a learning centre for the gas conversion business.
“The gas conversion business in Thailand is continuing to grow, thanks to the first-car tax rebate policy that delivered over 1.2 million cars on the street. Gas-fuelled vehicles are expected to increase by 20 per cent annually for the next five years,” president Surasak Nittiwat said yesterday.
Thailand has more than 1.3 million NGV- and LPG-fuelled vehicles, accounting for 33 per cent of all vehicles registered. The figure is expected to reach two million in three years.
According to the Land Transport Department, 33 per cent or about 2.5 million owners want their vehicles to be converted to natural gas. The increasing demand is an opportunity for investors to enter the business.
To become an exclusive dealer requires Bt4 million-Bt15 million in capital, depending on the location and size of the centre and the service type. The business will break even within two years with an internal rate of return of more than 50 per cent.

Salee shuts down inactive|associated firm Union Sunrise
Salee Industry dissolved an associated firm, Union Sunrise Co, in which it had held 18 per cent.
The firm had no business activities for more than a year and has no plan for future business. It was liquidated and closed down last month.
Union Sunrise was in the business of trading plastic trays for electronic parts. The dissolution has no significant impact on its operations.

New SET vice president to oversee market operation
The Stock Exchange of Thailand has appointed Chanisa Chutipat as its executive vice president and head of the market operation division effective as of last Monday.
She oversees post-trade services, trading operations, the clearinghouse, securities depository, securities registration and provident fund registration.
She had been senior vice president and head of the market operation division since the beginning of this year. She joined the SET in 2001 and was the CEO of Settrade.com Co from March 2004-December 2008 and senior vice president and head of the finance and corporate services division from January 2009-December 2012.

Canadian Solar awarded |module-supply deal
Canadian Solar Inc, one of the world’s largest solar power companies, was awarded an exclusive module supply agreement to provide photovoltaic modules totalling 91 megawatts by Soleq Solar (Thailand) for its power plant projects in Thailand.
The solar farms will be owned and operated by Soleq. Juwi, one of the world’s leading enterprises in the renewable energy sector, will provide engineering, procurement and construction services for seven projects with a total capacity of 61MW located in the provinces of Kamphaeng Phet in the northwest and Ubon Ratchathani in the east.
Bouygues Construction, a world leader in building, civil engineering, electrical contracting and maintenance, will provide engineering, procurement and construction services for three projects in the Tak and Sukhothai provinces of the Northeast.

Central Pattana merges|Pattaya operations
Central Pattana on Monday completed the registration of the amalgamation of its subsidiaries, CPN Pattaya Beach Co and CPN Pattaya Beach Hotel Co.
The new firm is a wholly owned subsidiary called CPN Pattaya Co with registered capital of Bt2.5 billion.

Banpu’s Aust unit enters 24.5m-tonne coal-supply deal
Banpu’s wholly-owned Australian subsidiary, Centennial Coal Co, has entered into a coal supply agreement with Origin Energy for the provision of up to 24.5 million tonnes of coal over an eight-year period commencing July 1 of next year for use at Eraring Power Station.
Eraring Power Station is a mine-mouth coal-fired generator located adjacent to Centennial’s northern operations in New South Wales. Under the terms of the agreement, Centennial will supply the coal from its operations near Eraring Power Station.