Thailand Business Roundup
Bangkok-based international voice telephony services provider SawasdeeShop has joined with Asia’s largest cloud-based communications provider Knowlarity Communications and launched ClouDee cloud telephony services. This is the first in Thailand.
Cloud telephony provides telephony services on a cloud-based platform, which helps eliminate the unnecessary cost and making getting a local number for Thailand-based business or over 60 international numbers for global businesses and can be done as easily as setting up a business email address.
Knowlarity Communication is regarded as the leading cloud communications provider in emerging markets and is based in Singapore with offices in Turkey, Dubai, India and the Philippines.
SawasdeeShop, established in 1999, operates telecom switches in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong, as well as New York, managing over two billion minutes a year and connecting with more than 100 global telecom carriers providing business communication services. It currently serves more than one million subscribers and over 500 corporate customers with domestic and international calling services.
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German automotive group Continental is considering establishing its new tyre-manufacturing site in Thailand, with the details to be decided by the end of this year. The tyre plant will serve demand in Thailand and other countries in the region.
The German firm has grown its tyre sales in Thailand by 400 percent since 2012, and is aiming to double its market share from its present low base of just under three percent if it sets up the plant here.
Continental Tyres Thailand had total sales revenue of around one billion baht last year, up 20 percent from 2014.
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Sripanwa Hotel Property Fund is set to be transformed into a real estate investment trust (REIT) this year as it aims to raise 1.2 billion baht from selling
Sripanwa’s second phase and its X29 resort home project.
Charn Issara Development PCL, the owner of Sri Panwa, said that it has established Charn Issara REIT Management (CIRM) to manage the trust, but is waiting for approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
This will be the first property fund in Thailand to be turned into an REIT providing it gains approval from shareholders.
Launched in July 2013, the fund has registered capital of two billion baht, while the Sripanwa Hotel Property Fund has total assets of 2.2 billion baht.
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LafargeHolcim, an international provider of construction materials, has entered an agreement to exit LafargeHolcim Vietnam and will be selling its entire 65 percent holding in the Vietnam joint venture to Siam City Cement
Public Company Limited, Thailand’s second largest cement producer.
The divestment values the Vietnam-based unit at around US $890 million, so Siam City Cement will need to pay about US$580 million for the acquisition.
Closing of the transaction in Vietnam is subject to customary regulatory and shareholder approvals, as well as to a right of first refusal of LafargeHolcim’s joint venture partner, and is expected to occur in the fourth quarter of 2016.
Siam City Cement was also the buyer of LafargeHolcim’s divestment from its Sri Lanka subsidiary.
