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The Commerce Ministry will allow rice traders to place purchase orders directly as an additional channel beside auctions for releasing rice from government stocks.

Duangporn Rodphaya, director-general of the Foreign Trade Department, said every rice trader that has an order from overseas could submit a purchase order for any kind of rice grain directly to the ministry, and then the working committee on rice sales would consider whether to accept the offered price.

The ministry will soon open another auction for about 100,000 tonnes of rice to general traders. In the last auction, which offered 139,000 tonnes, it was able to sell 72,085 tonnes worth Bt909 million to 13 traders.

Sermsuk riverfront land sold

Kasemsup Siri 4 Co, a subsidiary of TCC Holding owned by beverage tycoon Charoen Siriwattanabhakdi, has won a bid for 10 rai, 4 square wah (16,016 square metres) of riverfront land from Sermsuk for Bt1.8 billion, or Bt452,000 per square wah (Bt113,000 per square metre).

Sermsuk’s sole agent Colliers International Thailand said the land was bounded by Charoennakorn Road and the Chao Phraya River.

The sale price was 17 per cent higher than the minimum bid price of Bt1.55 billion, 

Central seeks more deals

Central Group, the Thai company that bought Italian department-store chain La Rinascente in 2011 and Denmark’s Illum outlets last year, is seeking more deals in the retail industry.

Central Group is looking for local partners in Vietnam and is seeking a European fashion and luxury-goods brand worth about US$50 million (Bt1.6 billion), Sudhitham Chirathivat, whose billionaire family owns the closely held company, said in an interview in Paris.

In Vietnam, targets could be in any business that overlaps with Central Group’s retail unit, from electronics retailing to department stores, Chirathivat said. In luxury goods, the Thai company would prefer brands whose management has a good knowledge of the European fashion system, he said.  – Bloomberg