Briefs

In a bid to help Taiwan’s brand vendors gain a strong foothold in Southeast Asia’s e-commerce market, the Innovative DigiTech-Enabled Applications and Services Institute under the Institute for Information Industry has chosen Malaysia as the first stop to promote its cross-border service platform highlighting a one-stop shopping option for Taiwan’s quality products.
Seven major e-commerce platforms of Malaysia -- 11 Street, EasyShop, Gemfive, i-Pmart, Lazada, Lelong.com and Logon.com – organised the “TW Good” event in Malaysia to promote Taiwan’s leading brands from October 24-26.
The event showcased several of Taiwan’s famous brands, including Acer, Asus, Arwin, Mom’s Dry Noodle and Nin Jiom. The event aims to allow more Taiwanese brands to explore cross-border business opportunities in the Malaysian market, helping Taiwan’s firms to establish a strong foothold in Southeast Asia. 
The event showcased an integrated portfolio of Taiwan’s culinary arts, entertainment and recommended tours through a strategic partnership with KingwayTek Technology, the leader of Taiwan’s navigation app market, leveraging its Localking app to offer a platform of integrated information on Taiwan’s trends, tourism, culinary arts and consumer market. 
It caters to all that Malaysian consumers need to know about Taiwan. – The China Post

Hutama Karya plans
6.5 trn rupiah bond issue 
State-owned construction company Hutama Karya will issue 6.5 trillion rupiah (Bt17.5 billion) of bonds in December |to finance the Trans-Sumatra toll road |project.
President director I Gusti Ngurah Putra said the bond will have a 10-year maturity. 
The Indonesian government will act as the guarantor of the coupon payment since the proceeds will be used to finance the government’s project.
“We will use the money for constructing the Trans-Sumatra toll road,” he said in Jakarta on Wednesday. 
The mega project is divided into 24 sections with a total length of 2,600 kilometres. Hutama initially worked on eight sections of the toll road, totalling 800km in length. 
However, the Public Works and Public Housing Ministry last month assigned the company to handle three more sections with an additional 600km in length.
To help fund the project, the company secured loans from state financing firm Sarana Multi Infrastruktur worth 1.8 trillion rupiah last November. – The Jakarta Post

OCBC Q3 earnings up 5%, 
but asset quality still stressed
OCBC earnings grew in the third quarter due partly to improved performance of its insurance business, but core-banking profit has weakened while asset quality issues persisted.
Singapore’s second biggest lender said net profit came in at 943 million Singaporean dollars (Bt23.8 billion) in the three months ended September 30 versus a profit of $902 million a year earlier, as the profit contribution from Great Eastern surged 232 per cent to $159 million.
Non-interest income rose 25 per cent to $970 million, while fee and commission income was up 5 per cent to $428 million on growth in wealth management income, OCBC said in its results released yesterday.
However, excluding Great Eastern, OCBC’s core banking profit was down 8 per cent to $783 million compared with a year ago.
“The operating environment for the group remains challenging amid weak economic conditions. – The Straits TimesGuocoLand expands to London and Sydney property markets with 27% stake in Eco World

Singapore-listed property firm GuocoLand said yesterday that it is expanding into the new markets of London and Sydney by taking up a strategic stake in Eco World International.
EWI is the overseas unit of Malaysian-listed developer Eco World Development Group.
GuocoLand said it will subscribe for a 27-per-cent strategic stake in EWI when the firm launches its initial public offering on Bursa Malaysia Securities by the first quarter of next year.
EWI will be issuing up to 2.15 billion new shares.
Eco World Development Group will also take up a 27-per-cent stake in EWI – making the two firms major shareholders of EWI post-listing.
Allocation of shares will also comprise a retail offering of 17 per cent of total shares, an institutional offering constituting 18.7 per cent of the shares and the existing 10.3-per-cent stake or 246.5 million shares held by EWI executive vice chairman Liew Kee Sin.
Of the retail offering, 2 per cent of the shares will be offered to the Malaysian public, 10 per cent to shareholders of Eco World Development Group and 5 per cent to the directors and employees of EWI and Eco World Development Group.
The enlarged paid-up capital post-listing will be 2.4 billion shares.
The proposed listing of EWI is targeted to raise more than 2 billion ringgit (Bt16.8 billion) to fund the development of four projects in London and Sydney.
Pricing of the new IPO shares has not been fixed and will largely be determined by book building. – The Straits Times