Thailand's business sentiment improved in February as rising tourist arrivals boosted confidence in the country's economic recovery, data showed on Wednesday.

The country's business sentiment index (BSI) climbed to 50.6 in February from January's reading of 49.8, rising above the 50-threshold for the first time in eight months, driven by stronger confidence in performance, total order books and employment, according to the Bank of Thailand (BOT), the central bank.

The improved sentiment came as increasing foreign tourist arrivals boosted confidence of respondents in almost all sectors of the non-manufacturing business, the BOT said in a statement.

The three-month expected BSI remained stable at 56.2, and the overall and most sub-sectors indices remained above the 50-threshold, reflecting improved confidence in most businesses going forward in the next three month, the written statement said.

The reading was based on a survey of 522 respondents from large and medium-sized firms, the central bank said.

Source : Xinhua

Electricity Generating Plc (Egco), the power generation arm of Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, plans to spend 30 billion baht on growing its power business this year by increasing capacity by 1 gigawatt.

Additional capacity of 250 megawatts is projected from various new projects, including wind farms in Taiwan and the US, which would start commercial operations this year, said Thepparat Theppitak, president of Egco Group.

In Taiwan, 22 new wind turbines operated by Yunlin Holding GmbH are slated to generate 44MW of electricity. Egco is a major shareholder with a 25% stake in Yunlin Holding.

In the US, the company expects an additional 44MW from a new wind farm run by Apex Clean Energy. Egco holds a 17.4% stake in Apex Clean Energy.

Mr Thepparat said the investment in Apex Clean Energy promises good business prospects for Egco, which aims to focus more on renewable energy development.

The remaining 750MW would come from Egco's plan to acquire new power generation assets based on both fossil fuels and renewable energy.

“We are planning to conduct due diligence reviews for several projects in order to achieve the goal of 1GW added capacity in 2023." said Mr Thepparat.

Egco continues to seek new business opportunities in alternative energy development. Among them is a plan to conduct a feasibility study on a small modular nuclear power reactor to generate electricity.

It also wants to join hands with new business partners to use hydrogen as a new source for power generation to support its carbon dioxide reduction campaign.

The company aims to achieve a carbon neutrality goal by 2050.   

For the oil transport segment, Egco is preparing to transport oil from Saraburi to Khon Kaen through its partially owned Thai Pipeline Network (TPN) Co, a provider of oil pipeline transport services to northeastern Thailand and oil depot services.

The pipeline, with a carrying capacity of 5.4 billion litres, is scheduled to operate between April and May this year.

TPN was awarded a 20-year contract for oil transport, which can be extended by another two periods, each lasting 10 years.

Source : Bangkok Post

THAI conglomerate DTGO is weighing listing its UK hospitality assets via a real estate investment trust in Singapore as soon as next year, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The Bangkok-based company is in talks with potential advisers on the initial public offering of the Reit, which could raise about £200 million (S$327.3 million), the people said. The UK hospitality assets involved could be worth about £500 million, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the process is private.

Deliberations are at an early stage and DTGO could still decide not to proceed with the Reit IPO, the people said. A representative for DTGO declined to comment.

The Reit IPO by DTGO, should it go ahead, would be the second such pound-denominated offering in Singapore, after Elite Commercial Reit raised about £135 million in 2020, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Any deal would be much-needed by the city-state where there has only been one IPO this year, raising just US$12.6 million.

Founded in 1993 by Thippaporn Ahriyavraromp with the concept of business-social integration, DTGO has grown into a conglomerate with interests in real estate, trading, technology, finance, entertainment and investment, according to its website. Thippaporn is the daughter of Dhanin Chearavanont, senior chairman at Charoen Pokphand Group, one of Thailand’s largest companies with interests in agriculture, food, retail and telecommunications.

DTGO bought a 17-hotel portfolio of IHG and Hilton franchised hotels in the UK from hedge fund Marathon Asset Management in 2019, confirming an earlier Bloomberg News report. BLOOMBERG

Source : THE BUSINESS TIME

The cost of business travel to Bangkok has risen moderately by 4%, making it the 24th most expensive destination in Asia, while Singapore ranks second after Hong Kong this year, says ECA International (ECA).

According to the Daily Rates report by ECA, the typical daily cost of business travel to Bangkok has risen to US$278 a day. The marginal uptick was caused by a slower post-coronavirus-pandemic recovery in popular Thai cities.

Lee Quane, regional director, said cities such as Pattaya and Chiang Mai all witnessed small rates of growth in local currency terms in 2022,ranging from 1-3%. Meanwhile, hotel rates have been suppressed by low demand compared to pre-pandemic levels.

In 2023, Bangkok's rank for business travel cost declined from the previous year. The Thai capital fell four spots from 20th in Asia and placed 142nd globally, a drop from 132nd.

The ECA's annual report provides average costs for hotel accommodation, which makes up the bulk of any daily allowance for staff who undertake business travel, including meals, drinks, laundry, taxis and daily essentials.

Regionally, Singapore became the second-most expensive city to visit for business in Asia and 19th place worldwide, overtaking Tokyo in 2022 after its early lifting of travel restrictions led to a rise in demand for travel to the city. The average business trip to Singapore now costs $515 a day, rising $34 from a year earlier.

"The resulting increase in demand contributed to rises in hotel accommodation costs, while costs associated with other daily essentials consumed by business travellers also increased at a faster rate than other locations in the region," said Mr Quane.

Tokyo dropped to the third most expensive location in the region. Although the daily costs for business travellers to the Japanese capital rose by over 5% in local currency terms, they were offset by the yen's depreciation against the US currency, leading to the decline of several cities across Japan in this year's rankings.

Rising inflation and currency depreciation also contributed to significant increases in business travel costs in local currency terms, with costs rising over 75% in countries like Sri Lanka, Laos and Pakistan, although the inverse was seen in some cities in China.

According to the study, the decline in costs for business travellers in China has been largely due to falling hotel costs associated with decreasing demand for business travel last year. In 2023, Shanghai climbed from fifth place to fourth in Asia.

source : Bangkok Post