Briefs
Visa, CB Bank offer Myanmar travellers new card
Visa and Co-operative Bank yesterday launched the CB Bank EASI Travel Visa card for Myanmar customers to use when travelling overseas for business and leisure.
The card can hold up to three currencies (euros, US dollars and Singapore dollars) at one time, and is designed to meet the needs of the growing segment of Myanmar nationals who are travelling abroad.
It can be used for overseas transactions anywhere Visa is accepted – at tens of millions of merchants, either online or in-store, as well as to withdraw cash at 2 million automated teller machines worldwide, said Somboon Krobteeranon, Visa country manager for Myanmar and Thailand.
Ecu-Line gets new US foothold
Ecu-Line Thailand expects to triple its shipments between the Kingdom and the United States after completion of its parent firm’s takeover deal of Econocaribe.
Ecu-Line, part of the Avvashya Group headquartered in India, last month announced it was acquiring a 100-per-cent interest in the United States’ third-largest less-than-container-load (LCL) consolidator Econocaribe, enlarging its foothold in the US market. The group expects its market in both the US and Canada to triple.
Viraj Nobnomtham, managing director of Ecu-Line (Thailand) Co, said the company next year would add more pick-up and drop-off points for shipments at Laem Chabang deep-sea port and more Bangkok-Laem Chabang transport routes to serve its clients.
Currently, Ecu-Line Thailand’s market shares by volume are Europe 30 per cent, Asia 65 per cent, the US 1 per cent and others 4 per cent. Of the Asia market, China accounts for 70 per cent.
GroupM to buy Vocanic stake
GroupM, the media investment management arm of advertising giant WPP, has agreed to acquire a majority stake in Vocanic, a leading social-media marketing business in Asia.
Based in Singapore with offices in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, Vocanic is a full-service social-media marketing firm. Vocanic has 70 people providing social-media strategy consulting, social technology, social-media program and campaign management, community management and social-media analytics.
Toray builds up SE Asia base
Toray Industries will spend billions of yen to strengthen its fibre and textile business in Southeast Asia, upgrading facilities in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia to produce highly functional fibre and adding or building sewing bases in Myanmar, Cambodia and elsewhere, according to Nikkei.
With the push, Toray plans to achieve its long-term goal of generating 1 trillion yen (Bt310 billion) in sales and 70 billion yen in operating profit in the textile segment in 2016, four years ahead of schedule, president Akihiro Nikkaku said.
For this fiscal year, the fibre and textile business is expected to see an 18-per-cent sales gain to 750 billion yen, boosting its operating profit 27 per cent to 55 billion yen and contributing to strong company-wide results.
Toray will upgrade synthetic-fibre facilities in Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia by fiscal 2016 for the purpose of manufacturing highly functional fibre previously made in Japan. These perspiration-absorbing, quick-drying fabrics are generating “strong demand among major sporting-goods makers in the US and Europe”, Nikkaku said, adding that Toray aimed to mass-produce them in Southeast Asia.
For the apparel business, group unit Toray International will open sewing facilities in Myanmar and Vietnam and is considering setting up shop in Cambodia and Laos. It will also step up outsourcing to local sewing companies, ensuring stable supplies to clothiers in the United States and Europe as well as in its home market.
Foreigners sell more Thai shares after losses on Wall Street
