Briefs

Vietnam’s National Wage Council has voted 14-1 for a 12.4-per-cent increase in the minimum wage next year.
After the increase, workers across the country will receive an increase of 250,000-400,000 dong (Bt400-Bt640) in their monthly wages next year compared with this year’s, depending on where they live.
The vote came after a meeting in Hanoi between the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour (VGCL) and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) failed to produce a consensus.
The VGCL, which represented the labour force, proposed an increase of 14.3 per cent, citing this year’s growth in gross domestic product, exports and foreign direct investment as justifications for the increase.
The VCCI proposed an increase of 10.7 per cent, saying that a greater adjustment would put a lot of strain on the business sector. – Viet Nam News/ANN

GLOW DEBENTURE
ISSUE SHINES
Glow Energy, which has an A+ rating with stable outlook from TRIS, successfully issued a 10-year bullet debenture to institutional and high-net-worth investors. The coupon rate is 3.95 per cent per annum. This issue was co-underwritten by Krungthai Bank and Bank of Ayudhya.
Brendan Wauters, chief executive officer of Glow Group, said that the success of this issuance, notwithstanding the recent volatility in financial markets, clearly reflects the confidence investors have in the business fundamentals and the financial standing of our company. “The funds raised will be used primarily to refinance debt maturing in the course of the year. The issuance of these long-tenor bonds will contribute to increasing the average maturity of our corporate finance debt, and is in line with our commitment to optimise our capital structure on an ongoing basis,” he said.
Payong Srivanich, senior executive vice president – managing director Global Markets Group of Krungthai Bank, and Masaaki Suzuki, head of JPC/MNC Banking of Bank of Ayudhya, as lead underwriters of the issuance, shared a common view that the debenture issuance is considered a great success not only for the company but also for both banks as lead underwriters, considering the volatile capital market environment during the time of placement. The demand from investors was overwhelming, with more than 5 times over subscription.

VN’S MOBILE DATA SPEED
SLOWEST IN REGION
Vietnam has the slowest mobile data speed in the Southeast Asia and Oceania region, a report by communications technology and services provider Ericsson said.
The “Ericsson Mobility Report” was based on Ookla’s NetMetrics data from Speedtest.net 2015.
Data from Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, as well as the Philippines, Australia, Bangladesh and Myanmar, besides Vietnam were analysed.
Singapore has the fastest mobile data speed in the region at 21,870 kilobytes per second, twice as fast as of Australia at 11,190Kbps, which ranks second, and nine times that of Thailand, which ranks third with 2,380Kbps. - Viet Nam News/ANN