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Luxury Nikko hotel to open in Bangkok in 2017
Nikko Hotels International, JAL Hotels Co Ltd’s international luxury hotel group, has announced that it will open Hotel Nikko Bangkok in 2017.
The new luxury hotel is now being built. It will be the first Nikko property in Thailand. However, Hotel Okura Co, JAL Hotels’ parent company, operates The Okura Prestige Bangkok, also a luxury property.
Hotel Nikko Bangkok will be located in an area that is often described as “Japan Town”, where many Japanese and other expatriates reside. The neighbourhood has become a trendy area of the city in recent years, with a wide variety of restaurants, bars and shops.
The hotel, in addition to being in this lively part of town, will also be convenient: The nearest Skytrain station, Thong Lo, is only a three-minute walk from the hotel, and Suvarnabhumi Airport is 30 kilometres away.
The 300-room Hotel Nikko Bangkok will occupy 20 floors above ground and four floors in the basement. It’s facilities will include Japanese and all-day restaurants, an executive lounge, five banquet and meeting rooms, a fitness club and a rooftop pool.
AP outlook now ‘stable’
Fitch Ratings (Thailand) has revised the outlook on AP (Thailand)’s rating to “negative” from “stable”. At the same time, the agency has affirmed the property developer’s national long-term rating at “BBB+(tha)” and national short-term rating at “F2(tha)”.
The outlook revision reflects Fitch’s expectation that AP’s EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) margin would remain weak in 2014 and 2015. Continued weakness in its margin or further deterioration in profitability would hurt AP’s credit profile more than previously expected, even though Fitch expects AP’s leverage to improve in 2015 because of lower working capital for project construction.
Listening to foreigners
To cope with the increasing number of complaints made to Phuket authorities by foreigners, Governor Nisit Jansomwong is looking to hire an English speaker to assist staff at the island’s Damrongtham Centre (ombudsman’s office).
The Damrongtham Centre was established to provide advice and information for people – both Thai and foreigners – about any issue they might encounter on the island. It also receives complaints and directly contacts relevant government organisations that need to be notified.
“Governor Nisit’s vision is to have at least one person on standby in the office in case foreigners would like to file a complaint,” Damrongtham Centre chief Prapan Kanprasang said.
“We haven’t set anything in stone yet. Right now, we are just exploring the possibility.”
Nisit said his goal was to make Phuket a fair place for everyone to live in. – Phuket Gazette
Global GM sales up 2%
General Motors Co sold 2,449,595 vehicles around the world in the third quarter of 2014, up 2 per cent compared with a year ago.
It was the company’s best third quarter since 1980. In the first nine months of 2014, GM sold 7,371,743 vehicles, also up 2 per cent.
Third-quarter sales in the United States and China, the company’s two largest markets, were up 8 and 14 per cent respectively. Year to date, sales in the United States were up 4 per cent and in China 12 per cent.
GM is on track to surpass sales of 3 million vehicles in China for the second consecutive year and the company expects to top last year’s record sales of 3.16 million vehicles. During September, GM’s cumulative sales in China surpassed 20 million vehicles.
Unicity plans Thai plant to supply Asean
Unicity International, a US-based marketing company, plans to set up its first manufacturing facility in Thailand to supply products to Asean markets.
The move is in line with the strategy to use Thailand as its strategic hub for expanding into neighbouring markets in the region.
Christopher Kim, Asia-Pacific president of Unicity International, said the company was preparing a plan to set up a factory in Thailand in the next couple of years to be a production centre for 15-18 items to supply different markets in Asean.
The Thailand facility will be Unicity’s second factory in the region after one in Vietnam, which will start operations in the next few months.
7-Elevens to accept NBTC vouchers
CP All has arranged with four makers of digital set-top boxes to sell the devices at 7-Eleven stores in 42 provinces to holders of discount coupons given out by the broadcast regulator.
The coupons will be accepted at more than 6,500 7-Elevens. The company expects to sell more than 2 million set-top boxes this year.
7-Eleven has joined forces with HiFi Orient Thai, the maker of Aconatic boxes; Crown Tech Advance, the maker of AJ devices; Family Corporation; and Forth Corp, to make 7-Elevens a coupon-redemption centre. The service will be available from next Monday.
Big C Supercenter is also ready to redeem the NBTC’s Bt690 coupons. Kudatara Nagaviroj, the company’s executive adviser on corporate affairs, said Big C stores would begin accepting them on Monday.
Tourism effort for 12 provinces
The Department of Tourism plans to include 12 provinces in a programme involving local community participation to highlight visual attractions, favourite tourist areas, and local goods and services. The development programme is in preparation for a tourism campaign focusing on “Twelve Provinces Not to Be Missed”.
Acting Second Lieutenant Arnupap Gaesornsuwan, director-general of the department, said the targeted provinces were Lampang, Phetchabun, Nan, Buri Ram, Loei, Samut Songkhram, Nakhon Ratchaburi, Trat, Chanthaburi, Trang, Chumphon, and Nakhon Si Thammarat.
Krungsri, Kiatnakin report profits
Krungsri yesterday reported a net profit of Bt3.6 billion for the third quarter, a 1.5-per-cent increase from the second quarter but down 7.65 per cent year on year.
For the first nine months of 2014, Krungsri’s net profit totalled Bt10.23 billion, down from Bt10.86 billion in the same period last year.
Chief executive officer Noriaki Goto said Bank of Ayudhya achieved loan growth of 3.1 per cent for the quarter. For the first nine months, Krungsri’s loans expanded by 3.3 per cent and it maintained its loan-growth projection at 7 per cent for the full year.
Kiatnakin Bank’s net profit in the third quarter dropped to Bt846.94 million from Bt989.27 million. In the first nine months, KKP’s net profit was Bt2.15 billion, a drop of 36.4 per cent from Bt3.38 billion a year earlier.
