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The Tourism Authority of Thailand will promote the luxury-tourism market as a part of its issue-based promotion strategy for the coming year.

Juthaporn Rerngronasa, TAT deputy governor for international marketing for Europe, Africa, the Middle East and the Americas, said the “Amazing Thailand Luxury” campaign was a key strategy to stimulate high-purchasing-power markets for the coming year and TAT would plan activities to achieve market expansion.

At the end of the month, 20 tourism operators with high-end products will attend the International Luxury Travel Mart (ILTM), which will be held in France from November 30 to December 3.

In fiscal 2016, aside from promotional activities and business discussions for the luxury-tourism market, surveys will be conducted among tour agencies in four destinations – Bangkok, Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai and Phuket – that provide luxury services like private jets, helicopters and elephant rides.

Thai AirAsia X gets new Airbus

Thai AirAsia X, Thailand’s first low-fare long-haul carrier, has welcomed its fifth new Airbus A330-300 airliner with a religious ceremony led by airline CEO Nadda Buranasiri and attended by the carrier’s executives and personnel.

The new aircraft features 377 seats divided into 12 reclining premium flat-bed seats and 365 economy-class seats. The fifth member of Thai AirAsia X’s fleet will serve flights to Japan, South Korea and Shanghai, China.

Siamraj lists on MAI

The Market for Alternative Investment will list Siamraj, a company engaged in natural-gas-related businesses, today under the ticker symbol “SR” after it met the market-capitalisation criteria. The company had a market capitalisation at its initial public offering of Bt2.1 billion.

SR has paid-up registered capital of Bt300 million, consisting of 450 million existing common shares and 150 million newly issued shares, with a par value of Bt0.50 each. From November 4-6, it offered 150 million shares to the general public at Bt3.50 each, for a total of Bt525 million. RHB Securities (Thailand) was its financial adviser and underwriter, SR chief executive officer Kiat Vimolchalao said.

Group Lease sees third Quarter profits soar

SET-listed motorcycle leasing |firm Group Lease (GL) has reported consolidated third-quarter net profits of Bt150.27 million, up 3,124 per cent from the same period last year.

GL chairman and chief executive officer Mitsuji Konoshita attributed the sharp increase in profitability to the company’s overseas businesses, particularly those in neighbouring Cambodia, where the economy is booming, whereas operations in Thailand have stabilised.

The positive outlook in Cambodia is set against a no-growth scenario in Thailand, where the outstanding portfolio has remained roughly unchanged at about Bt5 billion although overall assets quality has improved.

Thai non-performing loans are projected to decrease from about 6.5 per cent at present to about 5 per cent by year’s end.

SEC green lights transfers of funds

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will allow exiting employees to transfer their total benefits in provident funds (PVD) to retirement mutual funds (RMF) and maintain the same benefits given to active PVD members in the event that the employers’ PVD is dissolved or the employees’ membership ends.

The Capital Market Supervisory Board (CMSB) recently approved transfers of PVD to RMF to support long-term savings and investment of employees. The amended regulations will come into force on November 20.

SEC secretary-general Rapee Sucharitakul said that under the revised regulations, an employee transferring PVD to RMF would benefit from continuous long-term savings, freedom to choose any investment policy of his or her preference and tax privileges equivalent to retention of the total benefits in PVD.

In addition, the transferred money from PVD to RMF is not considered a usual investment in RMF and thus is not subject to the RMF investment-continuity requirement. Employees are also entitled to transfer the remaining PVD membership to RMF to be eligible for a tax break provided that all qualification requirements of the Revenue Department are met. In any case, the total transferred sum is not entitled to an annual personal-income-tax exemption.Meanwhile, TMB Asset Management Co and Tisco Asset Management Co are ready to accommodate PVD transfers to existing RMFs, as they have already put in place account-segregation systems and separate registers for different types of unit holders. Other asset-management companies are improving their internal work systems to facilitate the transfer service as well.