icloud, the Online Computer, Today Rolls Out icloud Premium -- a Massive 100 GB of Secure Cloud Storage for Only $39.99 / Year
Everybody Can Now Access All Their Content Anytime and Anywhere
icloud Basic With 3 GB is Available for Free, and Open for Sign-Ups at http://icloud.com
Today's launch of icloud Premium and the 100 GB Super Drive will greatly extend all the amazing capabilities of icloud to the iPhone. The new premium service lets everyone store, access and easily share files through any smart phone or browser. It gives you 100 GB of storage right in your pocket. You will never again feel that you have forgotten to bring important files with you. icloud securely stores files like music, photos, videos, documents, and provides a full management interface and virtual desktop through a browser to organize and share all your content.
icloud launch movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQgdceh66EQ
Daniel Arthursson, icloud's Founder and CEO, says, "Having 100 GB directly accessible in your pocket through an iPhone or smartphone will definitely change how we use and interact with data. With the massive storage of the icloud Super Drive, everything will always be accessible, no need to bring your computer to do a quick PowerPoint presentation, just present it straight out of the cloud."
Facts about the icloud online computer:
* Secure cloud storage with backup accessible from any computer,
iPhone, Android or Windows Mobile phone
* Free basic version includes 50 applications like Office, Mail,
Music, Video, Instant Messaging and Games
* icloud Premium with 100 GB Super Drive now available for $39.99/year
* Community (my.icloud.com) and email @icloud.com
* Zero installation, runs within browsers
* Available worldwide in 26 languages and used in 170 countries
About icloud
Founded in 2001 by Daniel Arthursson, Xcerion provides the free icloud.com service, the world's leading "Cloud OS", a groundbreaking technology with 22 pending patents. Developers have API and tools to build their own cloud applications.
Xcerion is based in Sweden, privately held and funded by Northzone Ventures. Investors include Lou Perazzoli, architect of Windows NT and former Manager Microsoft Core OS and John Connors former CFO Microsoft. Xcerion is a Red Herring Global 100 winner.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Eurocopter inaugurates new maintenance center in Bangkok
Eurocopter announced today the inauguration of a new maintenance center in Thailand. Located near Suvarnabhumi International Airport, the center has received official certification from Thailand's Department of Civil Aviation (DCA).
Eurocopter South East Asia (ESEA), Eurocopter's subsidiary in Singapore, has made an initial major investment in the new center, covering new facilities, specialized tools and qualification training for personnel. Further investments may be on the horizon as the center's activities increase and this includes the possible hiring and training of local Thailand technicians.
"The inauguration of this maintenance center celebrates the latest link in the network that Eurocopter continues to build throughout Southeast Asia," declared Dr. Bernhard Brenner, president of ESEA. "We are continuously developing our service offer to satisfy our customers by providing them with products perfectly suited to their current needs."
The maintenance center, registered as Eurocopter Thailand Branch, is currently certified for the EC120, AS350, EC130, EC135 and EC155 helicopters. The main activities include helicopter maintenance and training for Thai pilots and technicians. A branch of Eurocopter South East Asia, this center has been set up since June 2009. Being the pioneer and sole helicopter manufacturer with facilities in Thailand (Bangkok), Eurocopter is capable to provide turnkey solution to local customers with prompt service and support.
The first customers to entrust their helicopters’ maintenance to Eurocopter Thailand Branch are the operator Advance Aviation, with their two EC130s and EC135 and the Royal Thai Police with their two EC155s. Royal Thai Police fleet will reach 5 EC155B1 end of 2010.
Eurocopter has been present in Thailand for nearly 20 years. Approximately thirty helicopters from Eurocopter's civil range are currently operating in Thailand.
About Eurocopter South East Asia
Eurocopter South East Asia (ESEA) is the Regional Headquarters of Eurocopter, the world’s leading helicopter manufacturer. Established in 1977 in Singapore, ESEA is in-charge of the sales and customer support activities of 14 territories in the region. In 2008, ESEA achieved a turnover of 85 million euros. With a staff-strength of nearly 200 professionals, the company has developed a successful commercial network of regional sales managers and technical representatives.
About Eurocopter
Established in 1992, the Franco-German-Spanish Eurocopter Group is a Division of EADS, a world leader in aerospace, defence and related services. The Eurocopter Group employs approx. 15,600 people. In 2008, Eurocopter confirmed its position as the world’s No. 1 helicopter manufacturer in the civil and parapublic market, with a turnover of 4.5 billion Euros, orders for 715 new helicopters, and a 53 percent market share in the civil and parapublic sectors. Overall, the Group’s products account for 30 percent of the total world helicopter fleet. Its strong worldwide presence is ensured by its 18 subsidiaries on five continents, along with a dense network of distributors, certified agents and maintenance centres. More than 10,000 Eurocopter helicopters are currently in service with over 2,800 customers in more than 140 countries. Eurocopter offers the largest civil and military helicopter range in the world.
Eurocopter South East Asia (ESEA), Eurocopter's subsidiary in Singapore, has made an initial major investment in the new center, covering new facilities, specialized tools and qualification training for personnel. Further investments may be on the horizon as the center's activities increase and this includes the possible hiring and training of local Thailand technicians.
"The inauguration of this maintenance center celebrates the latest link in the network that Eurocopter continues to build throughout Southeast Asia," declared Dr. Bernhard Brenner, president of ESEA. "We are continuously developing our service offer to satisfy our customers by providing them with products perfectly suited to their current needs."
The maintenance center, registered as Eurocopter Thailand Branch, is currently certified for the EC120, AS350, EC130, EC135 and EC155 helicopters. The main activities include helicopter maintenance and training for Thai pilots and technicians. A branch of Eurocopter South East Asia, this center has been set up since June 2009. Being the pioneer and sole helicopter manufacturer with facilities in Thailand (Bangkok), Eurocopter is capable to provide turnkey solution to local customers with prompt service and support.
The first customers to entrust their helicopters’ maintenance to Eurocopter Thailand Branch are the operator Advance Aviation, with their two EC130s and EC135 and the Royal Thai Police with their two EC155s. Royal Thai Police fleet will reach 5 EC155B1 end of 2010.
Eurocopter has been present in Thailand for nearly 20 years. Approximately thirty helicopters from Eurocopter's civil range are currently operating in Thailand.
About Eurocopter South East Asia
Eurocopter South East Asia (ESEA) is the Regional Headquarters of Eurocopter, the world’s leading helicopter manufacturer. Established in 1977 in Singapore, ESEA is in-charge of the sales and customer support activities of 14 territories in the region. In 2008, ESEA achieved a turnover of 85 million euros. With a staff-strength of nearly 200 professionals, the company has developed a successful commercial network of regional sales managers and technical representatives.
About Eurocopter
Established in 1992, the Franco-German-Spanish Eurocopter Group is a Division of EADS, a world leader in aerospace, defence and related services. The Eurocopter Group employs approx. 15,600 people. In 2008, Eurocopter confirmed its position as the world’s No. 1 helicopter manufacturer in the civil and parapublic market, with a turnover of 4.5 billion Euros, orders for 715 new helicopters, and a 53 percent market share in the civil and parapublic sectors. Overall, the Group’s products account for 30 percent of the total world helicopter fleet. Its strong worldwide presence is ensured by its 18 subsidiaries on five continents, along with a dense network of distributors, certified agents and maintenance centres. More than 10,000 Eurocopter helicopters are currently in service with over 2,800 customers in more than 140 countries. Eurocopter offers the largest civil and military helicopter range in the world.
TeliaSonera and Huawei Launch World’s Fastest Commercial Mobile Broadband Network with Huawei’s 4G/LTE Solutions
TeliaSonera and Huawei Launch World’s Fastest Commercial Mobile Broadband Network with Huawei’s 4G/LTE Solutions
Huawei, a leader in providing next-generation telecommunications network solutions for operators around the world, and TeliaSonera, the largest telecoms operator in Scandinavia and the Baltic countries, today jointly announced the deployment of the world’s first LTE commercial network in Oslo, Norway. These 4G services offer maximum speeds of up to 100 Mb/s and are approximately 10 times faster than existing 3G networks.
TeliaSonera’s customers will be the first in the world to enjoy simultaneous mobile broadband services such as high definition (HD) video conferencing in mobile environments and a variety of HD video programs via multiple terminal devices; applications that cannot be realized in current 3G networks.
Mr. Kenneth Karlberg, President and Head of Mobility Services TeliaSonera, said: “We are very proud to be the first operator in the world to offer our customers 4G services. Thanks to the successful cooperation with Huawei, we can offer 4G to our customers in Oslo earlier than originally planned.”
As a leading provider of end-to-end 4G/LTE solutions, Huawei delivered both network infrastructures and services to TeliaSonera, such as access network, core network, operation support system, and network planning and optimization. Its field proven fourth-generation base stations and SAE (System Architecture Evolution) solution ensure the stability of the network and enable fast deployment.
Yu Chengdong, President of Huawei Europe, said: “In partnership with TeliaSonera, Huawei began this journey eleven months ago to introduce the world’s most advanced mobile broadband technology to the residents of Oslo. This milestone, which was achieved in a short period of time, reflects Huawei’s unwavering commitment towards accelerating the commercialization of LTE/SAE solutions. Operators such as TeliaSonera, are now able to to fully realize economic benefits from the many new applications that can only be made possible with ultra broadband services.”
To date, Huawei has constructed over 25 LTE commercial and trial networks and has made more than 3,300 LTE/SAE contributions to 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project).
About Huawei
Huawei is a leader in providing next generation telecommunications networks, and now serves 36 of the world’s top 50 operators, along with over one billion users worldwide. The company is committed to providing innovative and customized products, services and solutions to create long-term value and growth potential for its customers.
Huawei, a leader in providing next-generation telecommunications network solutions for operators around the world, and TeliaSonera, the largest telecoms operator in Scandinavia and the Baltic countries, today jointly announced the deployment of the world’s first LTE commercial network in Oslo, Norway. These 4G services offer maximum speeds of up to 100 Mb/s and are approximately 10 times faster than existing 3G networks.
TeliaSonera’s customers will be the first in the world to enjoy simultaneous mobile broadband services such as high definition (HD) video conferencing in mobile environments and a variety of HD video programs via multiple terminal devices; applications that cannot be realized in current 3G networks.
Mr. Kenneth Karlberg, President and Head of Mobility Services TeliaSonera, said: “We are very proud to be the first operator in the world to offer our customers 4G services. Thanks to the successful cooperation with Huawei, we can offer 4G to our customers in Oslo earlier than originally planned.”
As a leading provider of end-to-end 4G/LTE solutions, Huawei delivered both network infrastructures and services to TeliaSonera, such as access network, core network, operation support system, and network planning and optimization. Its field proven fourth-generation base stations and SAE (System Architecture Evolution) solution ensure the stability of the network and enable fast deployment.
Yu Chengdong, President of Huawei Europe, said: “In partnership with TeliaSonera, Huawei began this journey eleven months ago to introduce the world’s most advanced mobile broadband technology to the residents of Oslo. This milestone, which was achieved in a short period of time, reflects Huawei’s unwavering commitment towards accelerating the commercialization of LTE/SAE solutions. Operators such as TeliaSonera, are now able to to fully realize economic benefits from the many new applications that can only be made possible with ultra broadband services.”
To date, Huawei has constructed over 25 LTE commercial and trial networks and has made more than 3,300 LTE/SAE contributions to 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project).
About Huawei
Huawei is a leader in providing next generation telecommunications networks, and now serves 36 of the world’s top 50 operators, along with over one billion users worldwide. The company is committed to providing innovative and customized products, services and solutions to create long-term value and growth potential for its customers.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Samsung Electronics Appoints New Executive Leadership in Major Organizational Realignment
Geesung Choi is Named CEO; C-Suite Strengthened with New Positions of COO and CFO; Businesses Divisions Empowered as Stand-Alone “Companies”
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., one of the world's leading technology companies, today appointed Geesung Choi as its new CEO, as part of an organizational restructuring aimed to increase operating efficiencies and strengthen the independence of the company's business divisions.
Samsung also enhanced its C-suite by appointing Jay Y. Lee to the newly created position of Chief Operating Officer and Ju-Hwa Yoon as Chief Financial Officer. Yoon-woo Lee, currently Vice Chairman and CEO, continues only as Chairman of the Board of Directors.
In order to establish greater autonomy at the operating level, Samsung also announced it will be adopting a “company system” in which each business unit is managed similarly to a stand-alone company. The new alignments, both organizationally and at the executive level, create a more focused and responsive business structure.
“Samsung has recovered well over the past year, thanks to Yoon-woo Lee's leadership and a measured response to the global financial crisis,” said Mr. Choi, the incoming CEO. "With this forward momentum, we believe now is the time for us to make these important organizational changes to prepare for the challenges and opportunities ahead."
Samsung's consolidated operating profit for the first nine months of this year has reached 7.22 trillion Korean won (US$6.08 billion as of end of September 30) on sales of 97.05 billion won (US$81.69 billion as of end of September 30). This compares with a full year 2008 consolidated operating profit of 6.03 trillion won (US$4.8 billion) on sales of 121.29 billion won (US$96.5 billion).
Strengthened C-Suite
Effective immediately, the heads of all Samsung Electronics business divisions report to Mr. Choi and the C-suite. The new C-suite provides a more unified and efficient management team, consistent with global business models, and reflecting the executive structures of many leading multinationals.
“Our renewed profitability enabled us to think long-term - to make sure we can continue leading the market,” Mr. Choi said. “As a result, we've strengthened the C-Suite and created a new executive position - the COO - to help expedite decision making, improve efficiency, and mediate between our business units, ensuring that they work well together in meeting our customers' needs.”
Specifics on the executive appointments announced today are:
- Geesung Choi, named President and CEO of Samsung Electronics; previously President and head of the company's Digital Media and Communications Business.
Previous positions held by Mr. Choi include President of the Telecommunications Networks Business, and President of the Digital Media Business.
- Jay Y. Lee, named to the newly-created position of Chief Operating Officer; was promoted to Executive Vice President from Senior Vice President.
Previous positions held by Mr. Lee include Chief Customer Officer and Vice President-Strategic Planning.
- Ju-Hwa Yoon, named Chief Financial Officer; previously President and head of the Corporate Auditing Team.
Previous positions held by Mr. Yoon include head of the Management Support Team.
Independent Company Organizational Structure
Samsung's new organizational structure enhances the independence of the company's business divisions. The new alignment introduces a "company system" in which each business unit is managed similarly to a stand-alone company, with its own President and CFO. Outside Korea, subsidiaries responsible for components such as semiconductors and LCD panels will continue to operate as fully independent entities separate from Samsung’s IT and consumer electronics subsidiaries.
Previously Samsung had 10 operating divisions organized into two principal businesses - Digital Media & Communications and Device Solutions. The reorganization today replaces the two-business structure with seven independent companies under a single corporate entity and unified C-suite.
While creating greater autonomy at the operating level, the benefits of the new structure also include reducing the company's decision-making hierarchy from three to two stages, and supporting stronger focus and speed of execution in business and investment strategy. Customers will gain from increased independence in decision-making and faster speed to market.
From the first quarter 2010, Samsung will also adopt the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), global accounting principles established by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and practiced by many global corporations.
About Samsung Electronics
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2008 consolidated sales of US$96 billion. Employing approximately 164,600 people in 179 offices across 61 countries, the company is recognized as one of the fastest growing global brands. Samsung Electronics is a leading producer of digital TVs, memory chips, mobile phones and TFT-LCDs. For more information, please visit www.samsung.com.
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., one of the world's leading technology companies, today appointed Geesung Choi as its new CEO, as part of an organizational restructuring aimed to increase operating efficiencies and strengthen the independence of the company's business divisions.
Samsung also enhanced its C-suite by appointing Jay Y. Lee to the newly created position of Chief Operating Officer and Ju-Hwa Yoon as Chief Financial Officer. Yoon-woo Lee, currently Vice Chairman and CEO, continues only as Chairman of the Board of Directors.
In order to establish greater autonomy at the operating level, Samsung also announced it will be adopting a “company system” in which each business unit is managed similarly to a stand-alone company. The new alignments, both organizationally and at the executive level, create a more focused and responsive business structure.
“Samsung has recovered well over the past year, thanks to Yoon-woo Lee's leadership and a measured response to the global financial crisis,” said Mr. Choi, the incoming CEO. "With this forward momentum, we believe now is the time for us to make these important organizational changes to prepare for the challenges and opportunities ahead."
Samsung's consolidated operating profit for the first nine months of this year has reached 7.22 trillion Korean won (US$6.08 billion as of end of September 30) on sales of 97.05 billion won (US$81.69 billion as of end of September 30). This compares with a full year 2008 consolidated operating profit of 6.03 trillion won (US$4.8 billion) on sales of 121.29 billion won (US$96.5 billion).
Strengthened C-Suite
Effective immediately, the heads of all Samsung Electronics business divisions report to Mr. Choi and the C-suite. The new C-suite provides a more unified and efficient management team, consistent with global business models, and reflecting the executive structures of many leading multinationals.
“Our renewed profitability enabled us to think long-term - to make sure we can continue leading the market,” Mr. Choi said. “As a result, we've strengthened the C-Suite and created a new executive position - the COO - to help expedite decision making, improve efficiency, and mediate between our business units, ensuring that they work well together in meeting our customers' needs.”
Specifics on the executive appointments announced today are:
- Geesung Choi, named President and CEO of Samsung Electronics; previously President and head of the company's Digital Media and Communications Business.
Previous positions held by Mr. Choi include President of the Telecommunications Networks Business, and President of the Digital Media Business.
- Jay Y. Lee, named to the newly-created position of Chief Operating Officer; was promoted to Executive Vice President from Senior Vice President.
Previous positions held by Mr. Lee include Chief Customer Officer and Vice President-Strategic Planning.
- Ju-Hwa Yoon, named Chief Financial Officer; previously President and head of the Corporate Auditing Team.
Previous positions held by Mr. Yoon include head of the Management Support Team.
Independent Company Organizational Structure
Samsung's new organizational structure enhances the independence of the company's business divisions. The new alignment introduces a "company system" in which each business unit is managed similarly to a stand-alone company, with its own President and CFO. Outside Korea, subsidiaries responsible for components such as semiconductors and LCD panels will continue to operate as fully independent entities separate from Samsung’s IT and consumer electronics subsidiaries.
Previously Samsung had 10 operating divisions organized into two principal businesses - Digital Media & Communications and Device Solutions. The reorganization today replaces the two-business structure with seven independent companies under a single corporate entity and unified C-suite.
While creating greater autonomy at the operating level, the benefits of the new structure also include reducing the company's decision-making hierarchy from three to two stages, and supporting stronger focus and speed of execution in business and investment strategy. Customers will gain from increased independence in decision-making and faster speed to market.
From the first quarter 2010, Samsung will also adopt the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), global accounting principles established by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and practiced by many global corporations.
About Samsung Electronics
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2008 consolidated sales of US$96 billion. Employing approximately 164,600 people in 179 offices across 61 countries, the company is recognized as one of the fastest growing global brands. Samsung Electronics is a leading producer of digital TVs, memory chips, mobile phones and TFT-LCDs. For more information, please visit www.samsung.com.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Schneider Electric launches “Wiser Home Control”
Schneider Electric, the global specialist in energy management, launches “Wiser Home Control”, a truly integrated home control solution that interlinks the electrical, multimedia and telecommunications worlds to one user-friendly solution. It enables users to set programs to adapt to preferred living pattern for ease and quality of life; and control home equipment from anywhere and at anytime via 3G mobile phones or web-enabled devices by using fingertips allowing saved time, reduced repair and maintenance expense as well as efficient energy saving.
Mr. Stuart J. Thorogood (1st right), Schneider Electric Southeast Asia Senior Vice President, and Mr. Manish Pant (2nd left), Country President for Thailand, Schneider (Thailand) Ltd., recently joined forces with Habitat for Humanity Thailand to build home for underprivileged families in Nong Kon Kru Village in San Sai District, Chiang Mai Province under “Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project: Mekong Build 2009”.Schneider Electric was a Silver sponsor for the event and in addition to this the company also extended support by supplying power switches, sockets, and circuit breakers for all the 82 houses built under this project.
Mr. Manish Pant, Country President for Thailand and Laos, Schneider (Thailand) Ltd, the global specialist in energy management, strengthens its position in Thailand with the launch of a series of new environmentally-friendly and energy saving products for building management systems: “I-Line II Busway” and “Trihal Cast Resin Dry Type Transformer”. Both of these offers have undergone the global standard assurance tests by International Testing bodies, e.g. KEMA and strictly adhere to the IEC standards. The latest products are for building market, including hotels, offices and residential buildings and industrial market, in order to retain the company’s leading position in Electrical Distribution with high market share.
Mr. Stuart J. Thorogood (1st right), Schneider Electric Southeast Asia Senior Vice President, and Mr. Manish Pant (2nd left), Country President for Thailand, Schneider (Thailand) Ltd., recently joined forces with Habitat for Humanity Thailand to build home for underprivileged families in Nong Kon Kru Village in San Sai District, Chiang Mai Province under “Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project: Mekong Build 2009”.Schneider Electric was a Silver sponsor for the event and in addition to this the company also extended support by supplying power switches, sockets, and circuit breakers for all the 82 houses built under this project.
Mr. Manish Pant, Country President for Thailand and Laos, Schneider (Thailand) Ltd, the global specialist in energy management, strengthens its position in Thailand with the launch of a series of new environmentally-friendly and energy saving products for building management systems: “I-Line II Busway” and “Trihal Cast Resin Dry Type Transformer”. Both of these offers have undergone the global standard assurance tests by International Testing bodies, e.g. KEMA and strictly adhere to the IEC standards. The latest products are for building market, including hotels, offices and residential buildings and industrial market, in order to retain the company’s leading position in Electrical Distribution with high market share.
HomeWorks invests 800 million Baht to launch the first store “Thai Watsadu” to fit construction subcontractor market, ready to open early 2010.
“HomeWorks”, home products distributor under Central Retail Corporation Ltd. has invested 800 million Baht to launch its latest store “Thai Watsadu” with the concept “One-Stop-Shopping Construction Material Suppliers for Thai”, targeting to expand the construction subcontractors and tailor – made house owners base. The first branch is planed to open on Kanchanapisek Road, Bang Bua Thong on a 30 rai – land plot or 24,000 square meters which cover the west of Bangkok connecting to Nonthaburi and part of Supanburi, Nakhonprathom and Prathumthani.
President for CRC Power Retail Co., Ltd. and Power Buy Co., Ltd. Suthisarn Chirathivat stated “At present, construction material market has grown both in Bangkok and up country. As referring to the growth figures 2009, 0.8 -1.5 % increased while 7.3% in 2008. During the past five years, there is about 20% growth in this business. We have seen the opportunity to penetrate the customers especially in upcountry, which most stores run the business by traditional basis. Moreover, customer’s behaviors have changed they are more careful about construction budget and requiring more quality product under the standard pricing. Therefore, with our systematic management in product pricing, service, warranty and better -quality product, we are confident that “Thai Watsadu” is the best option.”
“Thai Watsadu” store layout is formatted to suit for customers: a one-story building with a high ceiling equipped with security & fire prevention system, the first store is built on energy saving basis. The strengthen of this format is “daily low price”, “variety of products”, “full inventory enough for customer’s demand”, “convenience and swift” and “instantly receive”.
Also, the company has released a member card “Thai Card” which provides customers a lot of benefits, for example, accumulative points, exclusive price, cash or gift redemption, including credit card payment and installment program.
“Thai Watsadu” is targeted to subcontractors of middle and small size, house owner, estate project manager and any other group such as government office and retail shop.
Regarding merchandise management, more than 100,000 SKU of leading brands are covering major categories of construction products, for example, frameworks like roof, column, beam, base work; architectural decoration like roofing materials, heat prevention, stairs, doors, windows; electricity system like wire, plugs, brakers, switchboard; plumping like water & waste pipe, water tap, valve, plumper and interior materials like shades, bath, kitchen, living room and general electronic appliances.
“PowerBuy”, Thailand’s leading electronic appliance retailer will operate all products at “Thai Watsadu”, bringing more than 3,000 SKU to their first store in Bang Bua Thong, total 1,000 square meters. At Bang Bua Thong, “Thai Watsdu” highlights “Audio & Visual”, “Home & Small Appliances”, and “Office Automation”. The store layout is designed under theme “warehouse” which, product stocks will be placed on the top of the shelves. Some product categories like AV are grouped by brand in order to give convenience for the customers.
Marketing concept of “Thai Watsadu” is Complement: Product complement total 100,000 SKU
Lower price : Daily low price. No need to wait for promotional seasons Good: Quality products with guarantee and customers are able to return and change At “Thai Watsadu” You can get everything
Suthisarn Chirathivat added “We targets income 80 million Baht per month and plan to expand more stores in Bangkok and 3-4 stores per year. By the last quarter of 2010, the second “Thai Watsadu” is expected to be launched in order to meet the business growth.”
President for CRC Power Retail Co., Ltd. and Power Buy Co., Ltd. Suthisarn Chirathivat stated “At present, construction material market has grown both in Bangkok and up country. As referring to the growth figures 2009, 0.8 -1.5 % increased while 7.3% in 2008. During the past five years, there is about 20% growth in this business. We have seen the opportunity to penetrate the customers especially in upcountry, which most stores run the business by traditional basis. Moreover, customer’s behaviors have changed they are more careful about construction budget and requiring more quality product under the standard pricing. Therefore, with our systematic management in product pricing, service, warranty and better -quality product, we are confident that “Thai Watsadu” is the best option.”
“Thai Watsadu” store layout is formatted to suit for customers: a one-story building with a high ceiling equipped with security & fire prevention system, the first store is built on energy saving basis. The strengthen of this format is “daily low price”, “variety of products”, “full inventory enough for customer’s demand”, “convenience and swift” and “instantly receive”.
Also, the company has released a member card “Thai Card” which provides customers a lot of benefits, for example, accumulative points, exclusive price, cash or gift redemption, including credit card payment and installment program.
“Thai Watsadu” is targeted to subcontractors of middle and small size, house owner, estate project manager and any other group such as government office and retail shop.
Regarding merchandise management, more than 100,000 SKU of leading brands are covering major categories of construction products, for example, frameworks like roof, column, beam, base work; architectural decoration like roofing materials, heat prevention, stairs, doors, windows; electricity system like wire, plugs, brakers, switchboard; plumping like water & waste pipe, water tap, valve, plumper and interior materials like shades, bath, kitchen, living room and general electronic appliances.
“PowerBuy”, Thailand’s leading electronic appliance retailer will operate all products at “Thai Watsadu”, bringing more than 3,000 SKU to their first store in Bang Bua Thong, total 1,000 square meters. At Bang Bua Thong, “Thai Watsdu” highlights “Audio & Visual”, “Home & Small Appliances”, and “Office Automation”. The store layout is designed under theme “warehouse” which, product stocks will be placed on the top of the shelves. Some product categories like AV are grouped by brand in order to give convenience for the customers.
Marketing concept of “Thai Watsadu” is Complement: Product complement total 100,000 SKU
Lower price : Daily low price. No need to wait for promotional seasons Good: Quality products with guarantee and customers are able to return and change At “Thai Watsadu” You can get everything
Suthisarn Chirathivat added “We targets income 80 million Baht per month and plan to expand more stores in Bangkok and 3-4 stores per year. By the last quarter of 2010, the second “Thai Watsadu” is expected to be launched in order to meet the business growth.”
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Aberdeen brings you the best from Global Emerging Market region
Aberdeen Asset Management Company Limited today announced the re-launch of its Aberdeen Global Emerging Growth Fund (ABGEM), which invests in units of a foreign fund, Aberdeen Global – Emerging Markets Equity Fund (Master Fund).
Aberdeen Global Emerging Growth Fund (ABGEM) has been launched since 2 April 2008 and the current fund size as of 28 October 2009 is 436.13 Million Baht.
Mr. Andrew Gillian, Investment Manager covering Asian Equities and Global Emerging Markets with Aberdeen Asset Management Asia Limited shared his outlook on the emerging markets opportunities that “Valuations in Asia and Emerging Markets still look reasonable relative to historic levels, albeit expectations are for a decent recovery in earnings in 2010. For this positive momentum to continue, profit growth will have to meet investor’s expectations. At Aberdeen, our focus remains on the underlying companies that we invest in rather than looking at liquidity or other investors’ expectations. We still identify good long-term investment opportunities in both Asia and Emerging Markets.”
“The areas where there is less doubt about growth are the emerging and Asian countries. A combination of buoyant commodity prices, substantial public expenditure and loose monetary policies, has boosted prospects in these regions where the impact of the financial crisis was less severe (Asian countries experienced their own banking crises in 1997 and have learnt from it).”
Mr. Chaikaseam Vadhanasiripong, Head of Fund Distribution Sales added that “Global emerging markets (GEMs) have been setting a fast pace in recent years. Since the 1970s, they have evolved from low cost locations for foreign manufacturing to centres of outsourcing expertise, driven by the forces of globalisation. More recently, GEMs have produced their own world class multinationals in industries as diverse as consumer electronics, semiconductors, aircraft manufacturing, shoes and shipbuilding. These companies do not rely upon cheap labour or easy access to commodities, but on “man-made” factors such as an emphasis on technology and design and a relentless focus on superior execution and quality. Thus the appeal of GEMs lies not only in their diversity, but as a hunting ground for the next global leaders.”
“Furthermore, we have the promotional campaign during November 1 – 30, 2009 for investment amount of every THB 1 million* in Aberdeen Global Emerging Growth Fund (ABGEM) and Aberdeen Asia Pacific Equity Fund (ABAPAC).”
Aberdeen Global Emerging Growth Fund (ABGEM) has been launched since 2 April 2008 and the current fund size as of 28 October 2009 is 436.13 Million Baht.
Mr. Andrew Gillian, Investment Manager covering Asian Equities and Global Emerging Markets with Aberdeen Asset Management Asia Limited shared his outlook on the emerging markets opportunities that “Valuations in Asia and Emerging Markets still look reasonable relative to historic levels, albeit expectations are for a decent recovery in earnings in 2010. For this positive momentum to continue, profit growth will have to meet investor’s expectations. At Aberdeen, our focus remains on the underlying companies that we invest in rather than looking at liquidity or other investors’ expectations. We still identify good long-term investment opportunities in both Asia and Emerging Markets.”
“The areas where there is less doubt about growth are the emerging and Asian countries. A combination of buoyant commodity prices, substantial public expenditure and loose monetary policies, has boosted prospects in these regions where the impact of the financial crisis was less severe (Asian countries experienced their own banking crises in 1997 and have learnt from it).”
Mr. Chaikaseam Vadhanasiripong, Head of Fund Distribution Sales added that “Global emerging markets (GEMs) have been setting a fast pace in recent years. Since the 1970s, they have evolved from low cost locations for foreign manufacturing to centres of outsourcing expertise, driven by the forces of globalisation. More recently, GEMs have produced their own world class multinationals in industries as diverse as consumer electronics, semiconductors, aircraft manufacturing, shoes and shipbuilding. These companies do not rely upon cheap labour or easy access to commodities, but on “man-made” factors such as an emphasis on technology and design and a relentless focus on superior execution and quality. Thus the appeal of GEMs lies not only in their diversity, but as a hunting ground for the next global leaders.”
“Furthermore, we have the promotional campaign during November 1 – 30, 2009 for investment amount of every THB 1 million* in Aberdeen Global Emerging Growth Fund (ABGEM) and Aberdeen Asia Pacific Equity Fund (ABAPAC).”
Thursday, November 12, 2009
ELECTRONICS, IT FIRMS GEAR UP FOR RISING DEMAND
Thai electronics and information-technology firms are planning to expand their businesses as the global economic recovery gathers pace, which will boost the need for higher capacity and more outlets.
Stars Microelectronics (Thailand), an electronics-maker, plans to invest Bt150 million next year to increase capacity at its two business lines, microelectronic manufacturing assembly (MMA) and integrated circuitry (IC).
CEO and co-founder Polsak Lertputipinyo yesterday said the company would increase IC capacity from 800 million units per year to around 1.4 billion by the end of 2010. Meanwhile, it will raise MMA production capacity to 90 million units per annum from 80 million units per annum from 80 million this year.
At present, IC products contribute 20 per cent of Stars' revenue, with the majority generated from MMA products. The company expects revenue from IC products to increase to around 30 per cent next and be on a par with MMA within three years.
The company aims to maintain revenue growth at around 15 per cent per annum.
Polsak said the key product driver for the company's IC business was its Tyre Pressure Monitoring System, which the company supplies to leading auto-parts customers around the world. Orders have increased by 60 per cent from last year. Stars plans to raise production capacity to more than 3 million units per month from the current 2 million.
Regarding the company's MMA business, orders of hard disks for laptop computers have increased by 70 per cent.
Western Digital, the world's second-largest manufacturer of hard disk drives, has confirmed increased orders of 60 per cent until the middle of next year.
Stars has also seen a rise in orders from smart-phone manufacturers as worldwide sales climb. The company generated revenue of Bt7.6 billion and net profit of Bt189 million in the first nine months of the year. For this year, it predicts net profit will slightly exceed the Bt210 million reported last year.
Meanwhile, Supant Mongkolsuthree, CEO of Synex (Thailand), a leading importer and distributor of computers and IT-related equipment, said the company had upped its revenue growth target for this year to 15 per cent from 5 per cent, after signing a contract to become the sole distributor of Seagate's hard disk drives.
The move was despite industry forecasts that the value of the computer hardware market this year would drop 5 per cent from last year to Bt70 billion.
Stars Microelectronics (Thailand), an electronics-maker, plans to invest Bt150 million next year to increase capacity at its two business lines, microelectronic manufacturing assembly (MMA) and integrated circuitry (IC).
CEO and co-founder Polsak Lertputipinyo yesterday said the company would increase IC capacity from 800 million units per year to around 1.4 billion by the end of 2010. Meanwhile, it will raise MMA production capacity to 90 million units per annum from 80 million units per annum from 80 million this year.
At present, IC products contribute 20 per cent of Stars' revenue, with the majority generated from MMA products. The company expects revenue from IC products to increase to around 30 per cent next and be on a par with MMA within three years.
The company aims to maintain revenue growth at around 15 per cent per annum.
Polsak said the key product driver for the company's IC business was its Tyre Pressure Monitoring System, which the company supplies to leading auto-parts customers around the world. Orders have increased by 60 per cent from last year. Stars plans to raise production capacity to more than 3 million units per month from the current 2 million.
Regarding the company's MMA business, orders of hard disks for laptop computers have increased by 70 per cent.
Western Digital, the world's second-largest manufacturer of hard disk drives, has confirmed increased orders of 60 per cent until the middle of next year.
Stars has also seen a rise in orders from smart-phone manufacturers as worldwide sales climb. The company generated revenue of Bt7.6 billion and net profit of Bt189 million in the first nine months of the year. For this year, it predicts net profit will slightly exceed the Bt210 million reported last year.
Meanwhile, Supant Mongkolsuthree, CEO of Synex (Thailand), a leading importer and distributor of computers and IT-related equipment, said the company had upped its revenue growth target for this year to 15 per cent from 5 per cent, after signing a contract to become the sole distributor of Seagate's hard disk drives.
The move was despite industry forecasts that the value of the computer hardware market this year would drop 5 per cent from last year to Bt70 billion.
Stars aims to beat 2008 profit
Stars Microelectronics is confident that this year's profits will exceed last year's thanks to a shift to higher-margin integrated-circuit operations and improved demand with the global economic recovery.
The company reported nine-month profit of 188.13 million baht, up from 165.68 million in the same period last year.
Third-quarter profit rose to 73.68 million baht, up from 62.34 million in the same period last year.
Stars reported 2008 profits of 200.9 million baht on revenues of 12.12 billion.
While 2009 revenues are likely to fall short of last year's performance - ninemonth revenues totalled 7.5 billion baht - chief executive Polsak Lertputipinyo said profit would rise thanks to higher revenues from Stars' IC business.
Stars (SMT) is an integrated electronics manufacturing services provider with two main business lines: microelectronic manufacturing assembly (MMA), which contributes 70-80% of total revenues,and integrated circuits (IC), which accounts for the rest.
The company is investing 100 million baht to expand its IC manufacturing capacity by 50% to 1.2 million pieces per year.
The company has already committed 50 million baht for the project, with the remainder to be spent in the first quarter of 2010, said Mr Pinyo.
SMT also plans to invest another 100 million baht in 2010 to further expand its IC operations.
"We are confident in any case that the company this year will meet or exceed last year's net profit," he told investors at a briefing yesterday.
"The fourth quarter of this year will see our highest revenues ever, with 60%sales growth from our clients in the hard-disk industry. We have also received new orders from several multinational firms, including the world's fifth-largest semiconductor manufacturer and another a leading firm in the credit card market."
At the end of the third quarter, SMT's return-on-equity was 18.4%, down from 21.3% at its entry in the Stock Exchange of Thailand in September, he added.
Debt-to-equity remains a relatively low 1.1 times, down from 2.48 times prior to its initial public offering.
The listing allowed the company to reduce its debt burden and interest expenses by 20 million baht per year.
Stars' valuation is seven times earnings compared with a sector average of eight to 12 times.
SMT floated 92 million shares in its IPO at a price of 4.95 baht each. Shares of SMT closed yesterday at 6.25 baht,down five satang, in trade worth 11.35 million.
The company reported nine-month profit of 188.13 million baht, up from 165.68 million in the same period last year.
Third-quarter profit rose to 73.68 million baht, up from 62.34 million in the same period last year.
Stars reported 2008 profits of 200.9 million baht on revenues of 12.12 billion.
While 2009 revenues are likely to fall short of last year's performance - ninemonth revenues totalled 7.5 billion baht - chief executive Polsak Lertputipinyo said profit would rise thanks to higher revenues from Stars' IC business.
Stars (SMT) is an integrated electronics manufacturing services provider with two main business lines: microelectronic manufacturing assembly (MMA), which contributes 70-80% of total revenues,and integrated circuits (IC), which accounts for the rest.
The company is investing 100 million baht to expand its IC manufacturing capacity by 50% to 1.2 million pieces per year.
The company has already committed 50 million baht for the project, with the remainder to be spent in the first quarter of 2010, said Mr Pinyo.
SMT also plans to invest another 100 million baht in 2010 to further expand its IC operations.
"We are confident in any case that the company this year will meet or exceed last year's net profit," he told investors at a briefing yesterday.
"The fourth quarter of this year will see our highest revenues ever, with 60%sales growth from our clients in the hard-disk industry. We have also received new orders from several multinational firms, including the world's fifth-largest semiconductor manufacturer and another a leading firm in the credit card market."
At the end of the third quarter, SMT's return-on-equity was 18.4%, down from 21.3% at its entry in the Stock Exchange of Thailand in September, he added.
Debt-to-equity remains a relatively low 1.1 times, down from 2.48 times prior to its initial public offering.
The listing allowed the company to reduce its debt burden and interest expenses by 20 million baht per year.
Stars' valuation is seven times earnings compared with a sector average of eight to 12 times.
SMT floated 92 million shares in its IPO at a price of 4.95 baht each. Shares of SMT closed yesterday at 6.25 baht,down five satang, in trade worth 11.35 million.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Delta may miss $1bn revenue goal
SET-listed Delta Electronics (Thailand)Plc expects its revenue to miss the target of US$1 billion this year despite improving sales in the third quarter and the high growth of its Indian business.
Although the global electronics industry has generally recovered, the telecom segment and the European market have yet to pick up, said executive director Anusorn Muttaraid.
Corporate spending on electronic equipment has remained low in the face of global economic crisis while banks are still reluctant to extend loans to the corporate sector, he added.
"The third-quarter results are better than those of the previous one. Business in India reported a relatively high growth but it should be better than that," he said.
He declined to elaborate further,pending the formal release of results to the Stock Exchange of Thailand.
"Purchasing power is still low and we might have to wait until the end of this year and early 2010 for corporate investment to pick up. Consequently,I don't think our revenue will reach $1 billion as projected," he said.
Delta posted total revenue of 6.06 billion baht in the second quarter, down 27.3% from the same period of 2008,as the global recession caused a significant drop in sales of IT and consumer electronic products. Net profit fell 50% year-on-year to 301 million baht. In the first six months, sales were 12.56 billion baht with net profit of 812 million, down from 1.42 billion a year earlier.
Analysts are upbeat about Delta's third-quarter results, expected to be released late next week, projecting earnings to more than double from three months earlier.
KGI Securities forecasts Delta's net profit will reach 700 million baht in the quarter to September, up 133%quarter-on-quarter, but down 20.7%from the same period of last year.
The brokerage raised Delta's 2009 earnings estimate by 3.8% to 2.3 billion baht with a target price of 21.10 baht per share.
Kim Eng Securities, meanwhile, is more conservative about this year's outlook, seeing a recovery of power supply systems in the European and Indian markets in the fourth quarter.
But Kim Eng expects an improvement in the world's financial sector and recovery in the electronics industry will help lift Delta's earning by 28% to 3 billion baht next year.
Mr Anusorn added that the company plans to set up a subsidiary in Singapore next year when the Asean Free Trade Area (Afta) integrates Southeast Asian nations into a single production base.
The Singapore unit will help facilitate Delta's further expansion to the Middle East and to African countries, given the island state's more favourable tax system than Thailand's for making investment abroad.
DELTA shares closed yesterday on the SET at 17.30 baht, up 10 satang, in trade worth 18.37 million baht.
Although the global electronics industry has generally recovered, the telecom segment and the European market have yet to pick up, said executive director Anusorn Muttaraid.
Corporate spending on electronic equipment has remained low in the face of global economic crisis while banks are still reluctant to extend loans to the corporate sector, he added.
"The third-quarter results are better than those of the previous one. Business in India reported a relatively high growth but it should be better than that," he said.
He declined to elaborate further,pending the formal release of results to the Stock Exchange of Thailand.
"Purchasing power is still low and we might have to wait until the end of this year and early 2010 for corporate investment to pick up. Consequently,I don't think our revenue will reach $1 billion as projected," he said.
Delta posted total revenue of 6.06 billion baht in the second quarter, down 27.3% from the same period of 2008,as the global recession caused a significant drop in sales of IT and consumer electronic products. Net profit fell 50% year-on-year to 301 million baht. In the first six months, sales were 12.56 billion baht with net profit of 812 million, down from 1.42 billion a year earlier.
Analysts are upbeat about Delta's third-quarter results, expected to be released late next week, projecting earnings to more than double from three months earlier.
KGI Securities forecasts Delta's net profit will reach 700 million baht in the quarter to September, up 133%quarter-on-quarter, but down 20.7%from the same period of last year.
The brokerage raised Delta's 2009 earnings estimate by 3.8% to 2.3 billion baht with a target price of 21.10 baht per share.
Kim Eng Securities, meanwhile, is more conservative about this year's outlook, seeing a recovery of power supply systems in the European and Indian markets in the fourth quarter.
But Kim Eng expects an improvement in the world's financial sector and recovery in the electronics industry will help lift Delta's earning by 28% to 3 billion baht next year.
Mr Anusorn added that the company plans to set up a subsidiary in Singapore next year when the Asean Free Trade Area (Afta) integrates Southeast Asian nations into a single production base.
The Singapore unit will help facilitate Delta's further expansion to the Middle East and to African countries, given the island state's more favourable tax system than Thailand's for making investment abroad.
DELTA shares closed yesterday on the SET at 17.30 baht, up 10 satang, in trade worth 18.37 million baht.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Capital offence
The big story in 2005 was that eBay had purchased the Internet's biggest telephone company Skype for $2.6 billion; the big question in 2007 was whether eBay would ever figure out what to do with Skype, which was clearly nothing more than an expensive toy for the auction firm, incapable of making big money and with no place to fit into the e-commerce giant; the big answer of 2009 is that eBay is going to pretty much admit it was wrong, and dump 65 percent of Skype on a little-known investor group and recover just over $2 billion of its 2005 purchase price; the only prominent new owner of Skype is Netscape founder Marc Andreessen, who has rounded up several investment types, including,weirdly, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, although you have to wonder how thrilled Canadian taxpayers are; eBay will retain 35 percent of Skype,which despite its size and global reach still has no public business plan to make much money.
High technology trade researchers Mobile Entertainment Forum said in a special report that Asia lags well behind the West in regulating and stimulating the mobile entertainment business; Suhail Bhat, MEF policy and initiatives director, told the ZDNet Asia group that Asian regulators have not been able to keep up with the explosive growth of the mobile entertainment industry;while the European Union is drafting policies for mobile services in 2015,Asia is still trying to figure out what rules to apply today.
In a huge, unbelievable shock surprise, the European Commission, which has not collected much in big-money hush payments for months, is going to "investigate" the pending purchase of Sun Microsystems by the database giant Oracle ; the EC says that the deal is a potential monopoly that could hinder competition in the database market;translation: If Oracle fails to budget a lot of money for the EC in its merger with Sun, the EC will make life intolerable for Larry Ellison's firm. In another shocking development, the very same European Commission said it will just have to oppose the proposed settlement designed to let Google sell digital books over the Internet because, whoops, possible monopoly trouble; strangely, the current near-monopoly on digital book sales over the Internet by amazon.com and its Kindle book readers hasn't bothered the EC at all.
So, the Associated Press reports that Siebel Systems ' billionaire owner Tom Siebel was attacked by an elephant while he was on safari in the Serengeti last month; it could have been worse for the software mogul; after all, a lot of super-rich software makers are currently being mauled by a Snow Leopard.
Advanced Technology Investment
Co of Abu Dhabi paid $1.8 billion to buy the Singapore chip foundry Chartered Semiconductor . In 2002,Samsung of Korea passed Sony of Japan in market value; last week, it neared the valuation of Intel Corp of America,and is expected to get to $110 billion and pass the US company within months.
The high profile head of Google in China quit the search engine company to start up a venture fund to finance high-technology start-ups in China; Lee Kai-fu became Google's global president for vice, stationed in Beijing, in 2005;while he revelled in the spotlight of his job, his accomplishments are another matter; under his supervision, Google came under huge fire worldwide for kow-towing to the Beijing authorities on Internet censorship, while in the meantime, Number 2 Google actually lost market share to Baidu , the runaway search leader in China; his new company,Innovation Works , will start looking for investments with $115 million in funding.
It's not those darned kids, its you;according to technology analysts comScore , just 11 percent of Twitter users are between 12 and 17; your embrace of this weird communication system shatters the belief that it's always the young people who lead the way to pop innovations.
Britain's worst polluter: Well, the contest isn't over, but the current top candidate is the $50 million supercomputer at the Meteorological Department; according to press reports, the computer takes 1.2 Megawatts of energy to run 15 million MB of RAM and 1 trillion calculations a second for 400 scientists;all of that produces some weather forecasting material and 8,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Vicki Walker of NEW ZEALAND was fired FROM HER JOB for annoying coworkers by sending them her imperious email IN ALL CAPS DEMANDING THEY "FOLLOW THE BELOW CHECKLIST";unfortunately, the touchy-feelie New Zealand Employment Relations Au-thority fell for her heart-breaking story of how she had gone into debt, and they ordered that she be re-hired and paid $17,000 in lost wages and unspecified "harm"; her co-workers got nothing for having to put up with her back then and now again.
High technology trade researchers Mobile Entertainment Forum said in a special report that Asia lags well behind the West in regulating and stimulating the mobile entertainment business; Suhail Bhat, MEF policy and initiatives director, told the ZDNet Asia group that Asian regulators have not been able to keep up with the explosive growth of the mobile entertainment industry;while the European Union is drafting policies for mobile services in 2015,Asia is still trying to figure out what rules to apply today.
In a huge, unbelievable shock surprise, the European Commission, which has not collected much in big-money hush payments for months, is going to "investigate" the pending purchase of Sun Microsystems by the database giant Oracle ; the EC says that the deal is a potential monopoly that could hinder competition in the database market;translation: If Oracle fails to budget a lot of money for the EC in its merger with Sun, the EC will make life intolerable for Larry Ellison's firm. In another shocking development, the very same European Commission said it will just have to oppose the proposed settlement designed to let Google sell digital books over the Internet because, whoops, possible monopoly trouble; strangely, the current near-monopoly on digital book sales over the Internet by amazon.com and its Kindle book readers hasn't bothered the EC at all.
So, the Associated Press reports that Siebel Systems ' billionaire owner Tom Siebel was attacked by an elephant while he was on safari in the Serengeti last month; it could have been worse for the software mogul; after all, a lot of super-rich software makers are currently being mauled by a Snow Leopard.
Advanced Technology Investment
Co of Abu Dhabi paid $1.8 billion to buy the Singapore chip foundry Chartered Semiconductor . In 2002,Samsung of Korea passed Sony of Japan in market value; last week, it neared the valuation of Intel Corp of America,and is expected to get to $110 billion and pass the US company within months.
The high profile head of Google in China quit the search engine company to start up a venture fund to finance high-technology start-ups in China; Lee Kai-fu became Google's global president for vice, stationed in Beijing, in 2005;while he revelled in the spotlight of his job, his accomplishments are another matter; under his supervision, Google came under huge fire worldwide for kow-towing to the Beijing authorities on Internet censorship, while in the meantime, Number 2 Google actually lost market share to Baidu , the runaway search leader in China; his new company,Innovation Works , will start looking for investments with $115 million in funding.
It's not those darned kids, its you;according to technology analysts comScore , just 11 percent of Twitter users are between 12 and 17; your embrace of this weird communication system shatters the belief that it's always the young people who lead the way to pop innovations.
Britain's worst polluter: Well, the contest isn't over, but the current top candidate is the $50 million supercomputer at the Meteorological Department; according to press reports, the computer takes 1.2 Megawatts of energy to run 15 million MB of RAM and 1 trillion calculations a second for 400 scientists;all of that produces some weather forecasting material and 8,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Vicki Walker of NEW ZEALAND was fired FROM HER JOB for annoying coworkers by sending them her imperious email IN ALL CAPS DEMANDING THEY "FOLLOW THE BELOW CHECKLIST";unfortunately, the touchy-feelie New Zealand Employment Relations Au-thority fell for her heart-breaking story of how she had gone into debt, and they ordered that she be re-hired and paid $17,000 in lost wages and unspecified "harm"; her co-workers got nothing for having to put up with her back then and now again.
Qatari buy stake
Qatar Holding has announced it will acquire a 17% stake in Volkswagen AG, which is merging with Porsche, in a deal that will exceed $10 billion.
This comes after the Porsche and Piech families said it will sell a 10%stake of their shares to the Gulf company.
In a statement released late Friday,Qatar Holding said it will now be the third largest shareholder in VW, after Porsche and Lower Saxony.
The purchase follows the UAE's Aabar Investment acquisition in March of a 10% stake of Daimler AG,famed for its Mercedes-Benz brand,indicating continuing Gulf interest in the European automotive sector despite the economic downturn.
The statement says Porsche will also establish research facilities in Doha as part of the deal.
This comes after the Porsche and Piech families said it will sell a 10%stake of their shares to the Gulf company.
In a statement released late Friday,Qatar Holding said it will now be the third largest shareholder in VW, after Porsche and Lower Saxony.
The purchase follows the UAE's Aabar Investment acquisition in March of a 10% stake of Daimler AG,famed for its Mercedes-Benz brand,indicating continuing Gulf interest in the European automotive sector despite the economic downturn.
The statement says Porsche will also establish research facilities in Doha as part of the deal.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Magnificent seven
In the most important, most revered event since the invention of the brontosaurus trap,Microsoft shipped the most incredibly fabulous operating system ever made; the release of Windows 7 also spurred a new generation of personal computers of all sizes at prices well below last month's offers.The top reason Windows 7 does not suck: There is no registered website called Windows7Sucks.com
Kindle e-book reader maker Amazon.com and new Nook e-book reader vendor Barnes and Noble got it on; B&N got great reviews for the "Kindle killer"Nook, with dual screens and touch controls so you can "turn" pages, plays MP3s and allows many non-B&N book formats, although not the Kindle one;Amazon then killed the US version of its Kindle in favour of the international one, reduced its price to $260(8,700 baht), same as the Nook; it's not yet clear what you can get in Thailand with a Nook, but you sure can't (yet) get much, relatively speaking, with a Kindle;but here's the biggest difference so far,which Amazon.com has ignored: the Nook lets you lend e-books to any other Nook owner, just as if they were paper books; the borrowed books expire on the borrower's Nook in two weeks.
Phone maker Nokia of Finland announced it is suing iPhone maker Apple of America for being a copycat; lawyers said they figure Nokia can get at least one, probably two per cent (retail) for every iPhone sold by Steve "President for Life" Jobs and crew via the lawsuit,which sure beats working for it -$6 (200 baht) to $12(400 baht) on 30 million phones sold so far, works out to $400 million or 25 percent of the whole Apple empire profits during the last quarter;there were 10 patent thefts, the Finnish executives said, on everything from moving data to security and encryption.
Nokia of Finland announced that it is one month behind on shipping its new flagship N900 phone, the first to run on Linux software; delay of the $750(25,000 baht) phone had absolutely no part in making Nokia so short that it had to sue Apple, slap yourself for such a thought.
Tim Berners-Lee, who created the World Wide Web, said he had one regret:the double slash that follows the "http:"in standard web addresses; he estimated that 14.2 gazillion users have wasted 48.72 bazillion hours typing those two keystrokes, and he's sorry; of course there's no reason to ever type that, since your browser does it for you when you type "www.bangkokpost.com" but Tim needs to admit he made one error in his lifetime.
The International Telecommunication Union of the United Nations, which doesn't sell any phones or services, announced that there should be a mobile phone charger that will work with any phone; now who would ever have thought of that, without a UN body to wind up a major study on the subject?;the GSM Association estimates that 51,000 tonnes of chargers are made each year in order to keep companies able to have their own unique ones.
The Well, Doh Award of the Week was presented at arm's length to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development; the group's deputy secretary-general Petko Draganov said that developing countries will miss some of the stuff available on the Internet if they don't install more broadband infrastructure; a report that used your tax baht to compile said that quite a few people use mobile phones but companies are more likely to invest in countries with excellent broadband connections; no one ever had thought of this before, right?
Sun Microsystems , as a result of the Oracle takeover, said it will allow 3,000 current workers never to bother coming to work again; Sun referred to the losses as "jobs," not people; now the fourth largest server maker in the world, Sun said it lost $2.2 billion in its last fiscal year; European regulators are holding up approval of the Oracle purchase in the hope of getting some money in exchange for not involving Oracle in court cases.
The multi-gazillionaire and very annoying investor Carl Icahn resigned from the board at Yahoo ; he spun it as a vote of confidence, saying current directors are taking the formerly threatened company seriously; Yahoo reported increased profits but smaller revenues in the third quarter.
The US House of Representatives voted to censure Vietnam for jailing bloggers; the non-binding resolution sponsored by southern California congresswoman Loretta Sanchez said the Internet is "a crucial tool for the citizens of Vietnam to be able to exercise their freedom of expression and association;"Hanoi has recently jailed at least nine activists for up to six years apiece for holding pro-democracy banners. Iran jailed blogger Hossein "Hoder" Derakshan for 10 months - in solitary confinement.
Kindle e-book reader maker Amazon.com and new Nook e-book reader vendor Barnes and Noble got it on; B&N got great reviews for the "Kindle killer"Nook, with dual screens and touch controls so you can "turn" pages, plays MP3s and allows many non-B&N book formats, although not the Kindle one;Amazon then killed the US version of its Kindle in favour of the international one, reduced its price to $260(8,700 baht), same as the Nook; it's not yet clear what you can get in Thailand with a Nook, but you sure can't (yet) get much, relatively speaking, with a Kindle;but here's the biggest difference so far,which Amazon.com has ignored: the Nook lets you lend e-books to any other Nook owner, just as if they were paper books; the borrowed books expire on the borrower's Nook in two weeks.
Phone maker Nokia of Finland announced it is suing iPhone maker Apple of America for being a copycat; lawyers said they figure Nokia can get at least one, probably two per cent (retail) for every iPhone sold by Steve "President for Life" Jobs and crew via the lawsuit,which sure beats working for it -$6 (200 baht) to $12(400 baht) on 30 million phones sold so far, works out to $400 million or 25 percent of the whole Apple empire profits during the last quarter;there were 10 patent thefts, the Finnish executives said, on everything from moving data to security and encryption.
Nokia of Finland announced that it is one month behind on shipping its new flagship N900 phone, the first to run on Linux software; delay of the $750(25,000 baht) phone had absolutely no part in making Nokia so short that it had to sue Apple, slap yourself for such a thought.
Tim Berners-Lee, who created the World Wide Web, said he had one regret:the double slash that follows the "http:"in standard web addresses; he estimated that 14.2 gazillion users have wasted 48.72 bazillion hours typing those two keystrokes, and he's sorry; of course there's no reason to ever type that, since your browser does it for you when you type "www.bangkokpost.com" but Tim needs to admit he made one error in his lifetime.
The International Telecommunication Union of the United Nations, which doesn't sell any phones or services, announced that there should be a mobile phone charger that will work with any phone; now who would ever have thought of that, without a UN body to wind up a major study on the subject?;the GSM Association estimates that 51,000 tonnes of chargers are made each year in order to keep companies able to have their own unique ones.
The Well, Doh Award of the Week was presented at arm's length to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development; the group's deputy secretary-general Petko Draganov said that developing countries will miss some of the stuff available on the Internet if they don't install more broadband infrastructure; a report that used your tax baht to compile said that quite a few people use mobile phones but companies are more likely to invest in countries with excellent broadband connections; no one ever had thought of this before, right?
Sun Microsystems , as a result of the Oracle takeover, said it will allow 3,000 current workers never to bother coming to work again; Sun referred to the losses as "jobs," not people; now the fourth largest server maker in the world, Sun said it lost $2.2 billion in its last fiscal year; European regulators are holding up approval of the Oracle purchase in the hope of getting some money in exchange for not involving Oracle in court cases.
The multi-gazillionaire and very annoying investor Carl Icahn resigned from the board at Yahoo ; he spun it as a vote of confidence, saying current directors are taking the formerly threatened company seriously; Yahoo reported increased profits but smaller revenues in the third quarter.
The US House of Representatives voted to censure Vietnam for jailing bloggers; the non-binding resolution sponsored by southern California congresswoman Loretta Sanchez said the Internet is "a crucial tool for the citizens of Vietnam to be able to exercise their freedom of expression and association;"Hanoi has recently jailed at least nine activists for up to six years apiece for holding pro-democracy banners. Iran jailed blogger Hossein "Hoder" Derakshan for 10 months - in solitary confinement.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Delta foresees Indian sales tripling to $1 billion
Delta Electronics (Thailand)Plc expects its sales in India to more than triple to US$1 billion in three years as demand climbs, said executive director Anusorn Muttaraid.
"India is a big opportunity and is also a good gateway for exports to Europe,Africa and the Middle East," Mr Anusorn said in an interview in Mumbai yesterday."We are bidding to supply equipment to the local power companies."
The SET-listed unit of Taiwan's Delta Electronics Inc is building plants in India to make electronic equipment and components to supply the world's secondfastest growing economy. The company expects $300 million in sales from India this year, compared with $200 million last year.
The Samut Prakan-based company makes switching power supply equipment for telecom companies and video display screens.
Delta will need to increase workers in India to almost 20,000 from 2,000 at present to boost its sales."India offers a large reserve of educated men and women who can be trained for the company's requirements," Mr Anusorn said.
Delta may add another facility in India's northeast to its existing three plants at Gurgaon, near Delhi, Pondicherry and in Uttarakhand state in northern India,he said. It may spend $50 million initially on land and construction and an equal amount later, he added.
The company expects revenue to pick up with an economic recovery in the US and Europe. Delta last year had sales of 32.9 billion baht, of which exports contributed 53%. Its first-half profits this year were 812.3 million baht, down from 1.42 billion in the same period last year.
DELTA shares closed yesterday at 18.30 baht, up 10 satang, in trade worth 53.25 million baht. The stock has gained 49%this year, compared with a 65% advance in the SET Index.
"India is a big opportunity and is also a good gateway for exports to Europe,Africa and the Middle East," Mr Anusorn said in an interview in Mumbai yesterday."We are bidding to supply equipment to the local power companies."
The SET-listed unit of Taiwan's Delta Electronics Inc is building plants in India to make electronic equipment and components to supply the world's secondfastest growing economy. The company expects $300 million in sales from India this year, compared with $200 million last year.
The Samut Prakan-based company makes switching power supply equipment for telecom companies and video display screens.
Delta will need to increase workers in India to almost 20,000 from 2,000 at present to boost its sales."India offers a large reserve of educated men and women who can be trained for the company's requirements," Mr Anusorn said.
Delta may add another facility in India's northeast to its existing three plants at Gurgaon, near Delhi, Pondicherry and in Uttarakhand state in northern India,he said. It may spend $50 million initially on land and construction and an equal amount later, he added.
The company expects revenue to pick up with an economic recovery in the US and Europe. Delta last year had sales of 32.9 billion baht, of which exports contributed 53%. Its first-half profits this year were 812.3 million baht, down from 1.42 billion in the same period last year.
DELTA shares closed yesterday at 18.30 baht, up 10 satang, in trade worth 53.25 million baht. The stock has gained 49%this year, compared with a 65% advance in the SET Index.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Rakuten takes over Tarad.com
Japan's leading electronic-commerce firm, Rakuten, is taking a 67-per-cent stake in Thailand's largest e-commerce company - Tarad.com.
"Thailand is a strong market that we expect to use as a springboard to jump into Asean countries in the future. Rakuten is an e-commerce consulting company. We will help Thai SMEs benefit from our technology, platform and services," Hiroshi Mikitani, chairman and CEO of Rakuten, said yesterday.
The deal was two years in the making. The value of the joint venture has not been disclosed yet.
The move is Rakuten's second step into the overseas market, following Taiwan last year. Rakuten ranks as the eighth-largest global Internet company by market value.
"Thailand has huge potential in e-commerce business in terms of growth and Tarad.com is a good local partner in helping the company to expand its business to the Thai market and to extend to the Asean market," Mikitani said.
Rakuten was committed to making the huge investment needed to increase the efficiency of Tarad.com's business capability, he said, but declined to unveil the actual budget.
Rakuten will send three executives to oversee Tarad.com's business direction. The first is Toshiya Matsuo, who will become the CEO, followed by two managers.
Pawoot Pongvitayapanu, Tarad.com's founder, will stay on as managing director.
Matsuo said the Japanese company would bring know-how and technology as well as capital to lift Tarad.com's business capability and competitiveness, as e-commerce is playing an important role in boosting the country's economic growth.
"Thailand is the fastest growing in Asean in terms of e-commerce business, but the total e-commerce business is eight to nine times smaller than Japan. We see the huge potential to increase e-commerce in Thailand to be bigger by eight to nine times in the future," he said.
There are a couple things that the company needs to improve in Tarad.com, such as the payment platform and technology facilities and support, in order to turn it into a regional and global player, he said.
Pawoot said the joint venture would combine the strength of the two partners to help leverage Thailand's e-commerce business to take a big leap forward in expanding to the world market place with the stronger resources.
"This joint venture will make a difference in e-commerce development in Thailand. By next year, we will launch a new e-commerce business model in Thailand. Huge benefits will be returned to Thai SMEs and the country's economy as the whole," he said.
Tarad.com hosts 160,000 online merchants carrying 1.6 million items. It expects to increase its merchant accounts to 183,400 by the end of the year. Tarad.com next year is conservatively expected to grow at 40 per cent, he added.
Rakuten has about 30,000 online shops and 40 million product items.
"Thailand is a strong market that we expect to use as a springboard to jump into Asean countries in the future. Rakuten is an e-commerce consulting company. We will help Thai SMEs benefit from our technology, platform and services," Hiroshi Mikitani, chairman and CEO of Rakuten, said yesterday.
The deal was two years in the making. The value of the joint venture has not been disclosed yet.
The move is Rakuten's second step into the overseas market, following Taiwan last year. Rakuten ranks as the eighth-largest global Internet company by market value.
"Thailand has huge potential in e-commerce business in terms of growth and Tarad.com is a good local partner in helping the company to expand its business to the Thai market and to extend to the Asean market," Mikitani said.
Rakuten was committed to making the huge investment needed to increase the efficiency of Tarad.com's business capability, he said, but declined to unveil the actual budget.
Rakuten will send three executives to oversee Tarad.com's business direction. The first is Toshiya Matsuo, who will become the CEO, followed by two managers.
Pawoot Pongvitayapanu, Tarad.com's founder, will stay on as managing director.
Matsuo said the Japanese company would bring know-how and technology as well as capital to lift Tarad.com's business capability and competitiveness, as e-commerce is playing an important role in boosting the country's economic growth.
"Thailand is the fastest growing in Asean in terms of e-commerce business, but the total e-commerce business is eight to nine times smaller than Japan. We see the huge potential to increase e-commerce in Thailand to be bigger by eight to nine times in the future," he said.
There are a couple things that the company needs to improve in Tarad.com, such as the payment platform and technology facilities and support, in order to turn it into a regional and global player, he said.
Pawoot said the joint venture would combine the strength of the two partners to help leverage Thailand's e-commerce business to take a big leap forward in expanding to the world market place with the stronger resources.
"This joint venture will make a difference in e-commerce development in Thailand. By next year, we will launch a new e-commerce business model in Thailand. Huge benefits will be returned to Thai SMEs and the country's economy as the whole," he said.
Tarad.com hosts 160,000 online merchants carrying 1.6 million items. It expects to increase its merchant accounts to 183,400 by the end of the year. Tarad.com next year is conservatively expected to grow at 40 per cent, he added.
Rakuten has about 30,000 online shops and 40 million product items.
They've got the power
The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) firmly announced plans to build two nuclear plants, with construction of the first to begin in 11 years; deputy governor and spokesman Wirat Kanchanaphaibul said studies were still under way, but two 1,000KW plants will replace or supplement some of the gas-fired plants,in order to decrease dependence on foreign oil sources; getting permission to build the plants will be child's play compared with the coming fight over where they will (not) be sited.
Top countries in Global Information Technology as ranked over the past year by the World Economic Forum were Denmark, Sweden and the United States, with Singapore in fourth place as the only Asian country to make the top 10; the annual report, which trashed this country, is sponsored for the first time by Cisco Systems, and by a huge coincidence adopted the theme "Mobility in a Networked World," not that a huge company would bias the report in any manner to show up countries using its technology, perish the thought;actually, Thailand's rank of Number 47 in the world with a score of 4.14 came even though Thailand is a major customer of Cisco's spiffy and extremely profitable censorship hardware; indeed,as the report put it so very diplomatically:"Pursuing its downward slide in the ranking, Thailand plunges a further seven positions to 47th. Behind this negative trend is the continuous worsening of the country's performance in all the government-related indicators;"how heartening, then, that the new government has taken such a strong interest in IT, even convincing the incredible Ranongruk Suwanchawee to serve selflessly as information and communications technology minister, a step certain to be reflected in next year's rankings.
The National Telecommunications Commission continued its frantic twoyear-old project to get ready to prepare to start to consider how to begin setting up Asia's last third-generation mobile phone system; chairman Gen Choochart Promprasit said regulations governing the auction of bandwidth should be published by next month - or so; the auction should take place Real Soon Now, comparatively speaking; before any 3G service actually begin, there may be lawsuits challenging the NTC power-grab to regulate 3G at all.
Peter Borjesson, president of vice of network services for Ericsson Thailand ,said his company would exist to serve 3G operators, in case there ever are any; the optimistic Mr Borjesson figures there might be an opportunity in the 3G market in 2010; Ericsson has had lots of time to get lots of experience in 3G, since service has already started in Cambodia, Laos, etc. New CEO Wichien Mektrakarn of No 1 yuppiephone network Advanced Info Service said he was thrilled to death to be able to work with your TOT on 3G services - assuming TOT ever manages to get that ball rolling; in the meantime, however,AIS is working on hiving off its service to its subsidiary Advance Wireless Network , and that could - repeat, could - take concession business from TOT.
Your CAT Telecom said it will try to talk state-run broadcaster MCOT ("Emcot") into donating its 2.6GHz spectrum for a WiMax service for yuppiephones;your brand new spiffy CEO Jirayuth Rungsrithong of Cattelecom said he also wants to finish the hookup between Hutchison-CAT and the up-country 20001-x networks, to created one flawless, CDMA phone network which would remain as the fourth-largest service.
Web pirates figured out that the Thai foreign ministry bought and maintained (14thAseanSummit.org) for last February's Asean summit; so they went out and bought the domain name (15thAseanSummit.org); you can currently "find Thai girls" and "date gorgeous Filipinas" from the site; there is no official word yet on the actual website to be used for the 15th Summit in Hua Hin and Cha-Am in October.
Information and Communication Technology Minister Ranongruk Suwunchwee told the company formerly known as Shinawatra Satellite to go pound sand when the firm asked to rent a satellite instead of build a new one;Mrs Ranongruk took a few moments from her frantic ministerial schedule to tell Thaicom , now based in Shingapore, that it could not amend the 1997 contract with her ministry; back in the last century, Shinsat and the government agreed that when the Thaicom 1 satellite fell out of the sky - which it soon will - Thaksin's firm would build a replacement; now, Thaicom wants to rent a foreign satellite to carry the phone calls and TV signals, and then build two satellites later;"The concession contract cannot be amended because it was signed more than 12 years ago,"said the minister.
The aggressive electronics services sub-contractor Stars Microelectronics said it was budgeting for corporate growth of between 25 and 30 percent in the second half of this year, because the recovery is that good; by coincidence,the company is also launching an initial public offering this month, and CEO Polsak Lertputipinyo said he expects somewhere around 4.75, maybe 4.95 baht for each of the 92 million shares on offer.
Virtual computing specialists NComputing of America and Thailand said it was upbeat about the Thai operations;Manish Sharma, president for vice sales in the Pacific area, said the sales targets of the virtual machines - including hardware and software - were 25,000 in Thailand this year, and 50,000 next year; the company already has major customers including Coca Cola, Tesco Lotus and Big C.
Top countries in Global Information Technology as ranked over the past year by the World Economic Forum were Denmark, Sweden and the United States, with Singapore in fourth place as the only Asian country to make the top 10; the annual report, which trashed this country, is sponsored for the first time by Cisco Systems, and by a huge coincidence adopted the theme "Mobility in a Networked World," not that a huge company would bias the report in any manner to show up countries using its technology, perish the thought;actually, Thailand's rank of Number 47 in the world with a score of 4.14 came even though Thailand is a major customer of Cisco's spiffy and extremely profitable censorship hardware; indeed,as the report put it so very diplomatically:"Pursuing its downward slide in the ranking, Thailand plunges a further seven positions to 47th. Behind this negative trend is the continuous worsening of the country's performance in all the government-related indicators;"how heartening, then, that the new government has taken such a strong interest in IT, even convincing the incredible Ranongruk Suwanchawee to serve selflessly as information and communications technology minister, a step certain to be reflected in next year's rankings.
The National Telecommunications Commission continued its frantic twoyear-old project to get ready to prepare to start to consider how to begin setting up Asia's last third-generation mobile phone system; chairman Gen Choochart Promprasit said regulations governing the auction of bandwidth should be published by next month - or so; the auction should take place Real Soon Now, comparatively speaking; before any 3G service actually begin, there may be lawsuits challenging the NTC power-grab to regulate 3G at all.
Peter Borjesson, president of vice of network services for Ericsson Thailand ,said his company would exist to serve 3G operators, in case there ever are any; the optimistic Mr Borjesson figures there might be an opportunity in the 3G market in 2010; Ericsson has had lots of time to get lots of experience in 3G, since service has already started in Cambodia, Laos, etc. New CEO Wichien Mektrakarn of No 1 yuppiephone network Advanced Info Service said he was thrilled to death to be able to work with your TOT on 3G services - assuming TOT ever manages to get that ball rolling; in the meantime, however,AIS is working on hiving off its service to its subsidiary Advance Wireless Network , and that could - repeat, could - take concession business from TOT.
Your CAT Telecom said it will try to talk state-run broadcaster MCOT ("Emcot") into donating its 2.6GHz spectrum for a WiMax service for yuppiephones;your brand new spiffy CEO Jirayuth Rungsrithong of Cattelecom said he also wants to finish the hookup between Hutchison-CAT and the up-country 20001-x networks, to created one flawless, CDMA phone network which would remain as the fourth-largest service.
Web pirates figured out that the Thai foreign ministry bought and maintained (14thAseanSummit.org) for last February's Asean summit; so they went out and bought the domain name (15thAseanSummit.org); you can currently "find Thai girls" and "date gorgeous Filipinas" from the site; there is no official word yet on the actual website to be used for the 15th Summit in Hua Hin and Cha-Am in October.
Information and Communication Technology Minister Ranongruk Suwunchwee told the company formerly known as Shinawatra Satellite to go pound sand when the firm asked to rent a satellite instead of build a new one;Mrs Ranongruk took a few moments from her frantic ministerial schedule to tell Thaicom , now based in Shingapore, that it could not amend the 1997 contract with her ministry; back in the last century, Shinsat and the government agreed that when the Thaicom 1 satellite fell out of the sky - which it soon will - Thaksin's firm would build a replacement; now, Thaicom wants to rent a foreign satellite to carry the phone calls and TV signals, and then build two satellites later;"The concession contract cannot be amended because it was signed more than 12 years ago,"said the minister.
The aggressive electronics services sub-contractor Stars Microelectronics said it was budgeting for corporate growth of between 25 and 30 percent in the second half of this year, because the recovery is that good; by coincidence,the company is also launching an initial public offering this month, and CEO Polsak Lertputipinyo said he expects somewhere around 4.75, maybe 4.95 baht for each of the 92 million shares on offer.
Virtual computing specialists NComputing of America and Thailand said it was upbeat about the Thai operations;Manish Sharma, president for vice sales in the Pacific area, said the sales targets of the virtual machines - including hardware and software - were 25,000 in Thailand this year, and 50,000 next year; the company already has major customers including Coca Cola, Tesco Lotus and Big C.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Stars makes impressive debut on SET
Stars Microelectronics (SMT) expects revenue to grow 25% this year from 12.12 billion last year, according to chief executive Polsak Lertputipinyo.
He said the growth would come from the strong pickup in global demand in the IT and electronics sector, with demand expected to remain strong through 2010.
SMT, an electronics manufacturing service subcontractor, projects revenue growth of 10% to 15% in 2010, with the company expected to sign up 5-6 new companies for its microelectronic module assembly and integrated circuit services.
SMT operates two main business lines -microelectronic module assembly (MMA) and integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing. Its products include touchscreens for smart phones, harddisk control boards used in laptop computers and sensors for the automotive and medical industries.
MMA accounts for 70% of revenue,with a profit margin of 30-40%. However,he expected that within the next two years, revenue contributions by the two business lines will be split evenly.
Shares of SMT began trading yesterday on the SET as the fifth new listing on the main board this year.
The stock opened at 5.25 baht and rose to a high of 5.95 before falling to close at 5.75 baht in trade worth 674 million baht, a 20% gain from its initial public offering price of 4.95 baht per share.
Paiboon Nalinthrangkurn, chief executive of the financial adviser Tisco Securities, said investors are paying more attention to export-related companies due to the signs of global recovery.
The sentiment is in contrast to that prevailing at the beginning of the year,when investors focused on domestic markets, he said.
SMT reported total first-half revenues of 4.589 billion baht with net profits of 115 million baht.
He said the growth would come from the strong pickup in global demand in the IT and electronics sector, with demand expected to remain strong through 2010.
SMT, an electronics manufacturing service subcontractor, projects revenue growth of 10% to 15% in 2010, with the company expected to sign up 5-6 new companies for its microelectronic module assembly and integrated circuit services.
SMT operates two main business lines -microelectronic module assembly (MMA) and integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing. Its products include touchscreens for smart phones, harddisk control boards used in laptop computers and sensors for the automotive and medical industries.
MMA accounts for 70% of revenue,with a profit margin of 30-40%. However,he expected that within the next two years, revenue contributions by the two business lines will be split evenly.
Shares of SMT began trading yesterday on the SET as the fifth new listing on the main board this year.
The stock opened at 5.25 baht and rose to a high of 5.95 before falling to close at 5.75 baht in trade worth 674 million baht, a 20% gain from its initial public offering price of 4.95 baht per share.
Paiboon Nalinthrangkurn, chief executive of the financial adviser Tisco Securities, said investors are paying more attention to export-related companies due to the signs of global recovery.
The sentiment is in contrast to that prevailing at the beginning of the year,when investors focused on domestic markets, he said.
SMT reported total first-half revenues of 4.589 billion baht with net profits of 115 million baht.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Researchers tap into RFID to cut costs
New technologies for real-time vehicle tracking will play a big role in lowering expensive logistics costs, improving transport management and the country's competitiveness, according to the National Innovation Agency (NIA).
Logistics costs as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) in Thailand are as high as 19%, compared with 9.4% in the United States and single digits or low double digits in many other developed countries.
Given that Thailand relies on exports for more than 60% of its GDP, logistics costs are far too high, industry leaders have said for years.
The NIA has supported researchers pursuing innovations to reduce costs, a notable example being B-Move, which was a co-developed by Southeast Asia Technology Co and Burapha University's Logistics Department.
The system, is based on radio frequency identification (RFID) for tracking vehicles to monitor transport.
"The technology can not only be adapted to use in transport management in order to raise the efficiency of transport but also to lower transport costs and save time," said Supachai Lorlowhakarn,the NIA director.
It can also be used in public transport for managing bus schedules and routes.
A tag installed on each vehicle sends signals to RFID readers placed in telephone booths, which act as receivers.The information is then transferred to a control centre through an Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line or ADSL, which sends data over copper telephone lines faster than a conventional voiceband modem can provide.
The NIA underwrote half of the project's cost of 3.12 million baht.
The agency has also supported the use of RFID in the shrimp industry to create a 3D barcode on packaging. It identifies the origin, quality and safety of the product from the duration of transport from the farm to the factory, to what kind of food is fed to the shrimp.This prevents farmers from using harmful substances, said Dr Supachai.
The project worth 5.96 million baht in total includes another technology called C-Move, a tracking system, developed by DX Innovation Co and partially funded by the NIA. It uses a global positioning system or GPS device to track vehicles that run across the country.
Unlike B-Move which targets product transport within the city, C-Move looks after larger networks, such as transport to and from different provinces. Although B-Move's RFID technology has a higher quality, it can be used in a limited space whereas GPS uses a satellite system that allows a wider scale of usage.
The two projects were commercialised two months ago.
On the distribution side, a bidding website acts as a matchmaking service by allowing customers to see the avail-ability of vehicles that can transport products from one place to another.
The current transport management system, which is not integrated into a network, means shippers cannot use the same vehicles for different products.
Continuous trips can lower energy costs by reducing the number of empty trips, which account for up to 46% of all trips for land transport of products.
Eighty-nine percent of all product transport in Thailand is by land, resulting in a total of 71.74 million trips per year.
Logistics costs as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) in Thailand are as high as 19%, compared with 9.4% in the United States and single digits or low double digits in many other developed countries.
Given that Thailand relies on exports for more than 60% of its GDP, logistics costs are far too high, industry leaders have said for years.
The NIA has supported researchers pursuing innovations to reduce costs, a notable example being B-Move, which was a co-developed by Southeast Asia Technology Co and Burapha University's Logistics Department.
The system, is based on radio frequency identification (RFID) for tracking vehicles to monitor transport.
"The technology can not only be adapted to use in transport management in order to raise the efficiency of transport but also to lower transport costs and save time," said Supachai Lorlowhakarn,the NIA director.
It can also be used in public transport for managing bus schedules and routes.
A tag installed on each vehicle sends signals to RFID readers placed in telephone booths, which act as receivers.The information is then transferred to a control centre through an Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line or ADSL, which sends data over copper telephone lines faster than a conventional voiceband modem can provide.
The NIA underwrote half of the project's cost of 3.12 million baht.
The agency has also supported the use of RFID in the shrimp industry to create a 3D barcode on packaging. It identifies the origin, quality and safety of the product from the duration of transport from the farm to the factory, to what kind of food is fed to the shrimp.This prevents farmers from using harmful substances, said Dr Supachai.
The project worth 5.96 million baht in total includes another technology called C-Move, a tracking system, developed by DX Innovation Co and partially funded by the NIA. It uses a global positioning system or GPS device to track vehicles that run across the country.
Unlike B-Move which targets product transport within the city, C-Move looks after larger networks, such as transport to and from different provinces. Although B-Move's RFID technology has a higher quality, it can be used in a limited space whereas GPS uses a satellite system that allows a wider scale of usage.
The two projects were commercialised two months ago.
On the distribution side, a bidding website acts as a matchmaking service by allowing customers to see the avail-ability of vehicles that can transport products from one place to another.
The current transport management system, which is not integrated into a network, means shippers cannot use the same vehicles for different products.
Continuous trips can lower energy costs by reducing the number of empty trips, which account for up to 46% of all trips for land transport of products.
Eighty-nine percent of all product transport in Thailand is by land, resulting in a total of 71.74 million trips per year.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Capital offence
The big story in 2005 was that eBay had purchased the Internet's biggest telephone company Skype for $2.6 billion; the big question in 2007 was whether eBay would ever figure out what to do with Skype, which was clearly nothing more than an expensive toy for the auction firm, incapable of making big money and with no place to fit into the e-commerce giant; the big answer of 2009 is that eBay is going to pretty much admit it was wrong, and dump 65 percent of Skype on a little-known investor group and recover just over $2 billion of its 2005 purchase price; the only prominent new owner of Skype is Netscape founder Marc Andreessen, who has rounded up several investment types, including,weirdly, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, although you have to wonder how thrilled Canadian taxpayers are; eBay will retain 35 percent of Skype,which despite its size and global reach still has no public business plan to make much money.
High technology trade researchers Mobile Entertainment Forum said in a special report that Asia lags well behind the West in regulating and stimulating the mobile entertainment business; Suhail Bhat, MEF policy and initiatives director, told the ZDNet Asia group that Asian regulators have not been able to keep up with the explosive growth of the mobile entertainment industry;while the European Union is drafting policies for mobile services in 2015,Asia is still trying to figure out what rules to apply today.
In a huge, unbelievable shock surprise, the European Commission, which has not collected much in big-money hush payments for months, is going to "investigate" the pending purchase of Sun Microsystems by the database giant Oracle ; the EC says that the deal is a potential monopoly that could hinder competition in the database market;translation: If Oracle fails to budget a lot of money for the EC in its merger with Sun, the EC will make life intolerable for Larry Ellison's firm. In another shocking development, the very same European Commission said it will just have to oppose the proposed settlement designed to let Google sell digital books over the Internet because, whoops, possible monopoly trouble; strangely, the current near-monopoly on digital book sales over the Internet by amazon.com and its Kindle book readers hasn't bothered the EC at all.
So, the Associated Press reports that Siebel Systems ' billionaire owner Tom Siebel was attacked by an elephant while he was on safari in the Serengeti last month; it could have been worse for the software mogul; after all, a lot of super-rich software makers are currently being mauled by a Snow Leopard.
Advanced Technology Investment
Co of Abu Dhabi paid $1.8 billion to buy the Singapore chip foundry Chartered Semiconductor . In 2002,Samsung of Korea passed Sony of Japan in market value; last week, it neared the valuation of Intel Corp of America,and is expected to get to $110 billion and pass the US company within months.
The high profile head of Google in China quit the search engine company to start up a venture fund to finance high-technology start-ups in China; Lee Kai-fu became Google's global president for vice, stationed in Beijing, in 2005;while he revelled in the spotlight of his job, his accomplishments are another matter; under his supervision, Google came under huge fire worldwide for kow-towing to the Beijing authorities on Internet censorship, while in the meantime, Number 2 Google actually lost market share to Baidu , the runaway search leader in China; his new company,Innovation Works , will start looking for investments with $115 million in funding.
It's not those darned kids, its you;according to technology analysts comScore , just 11 percent of Twitter users are between 12 and 17; your embrace of this weird communication system shatters the belief that it's always the young people who lead the way to pop innovations.
Britain's worst polluter: Well, the contest isn't over, but the current top candidate is the $50 million supercomputer at the Meteorological Department; according to press reports, the computer takes 1.2 Megawatts of energy to run 15 million MB of RAM and 1 trillion calculations a second for 400 scientists;all of that produces some weather forecasting material and 8,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Vicki Walker of NEW ZEALAND was fired FROM HER JOB for annoying coworkers by sending them her imperious email IN ALL CAPS DEMANDING THEY "FOLLOW THE BELOW CHECKLIST";unfortunately, the touchy-feelie New Zealand Employment Relations Au-thority fell for her heart-breaking story of how she had gone into debt, and they ordered that she be re-hired and paid $17,000 in lost wages and unspecified "harm"; her co-workers got nothing for having to put up with her back then and now again.
High technology trade researchers Mobile Entertainment Forum said in a special report that Asia lags well behind the West in regulating and stimulating the mobile entertainment business; Suhail Bhat, MEF policy and initiatives director, told the ZDNet Asia group that Asian regulators have not been able to keep up with the explosive growth of the mobile entertainment industry;while the European Union is drafting policies for mobile services in 2015,Asia is still trying to figure out what rules to apply today.
In a huge, unbelievable shock surprise, the European Commission, which has not collected much in big-money hush payments for months, is going to "investigate" the pending purchase of Sun Microsystems by the database giant Oracle ; the EC says that the deal is a potential monopoly that could hinder competition in the database market;translation: If Oracle fails to budget a lot of money for the EC in its merger with Sun, the EC will make life intolerable for Larry Ellison's firm. In another shocking development, the very same European Commission said it will just have to oppose the proposed settlement designed to let Google sell digital books over the Internet because, whoops, possible monopoly trouble; strangely, the current near-monopoly on digital book sales over the Internet by amazon.com and its Kindle book readers hasn't bothered the EC at all.
So, the Associated Press reports that Siebel Systems ' billionaire owner Tom Siebel was attacked by an elephant while he was on safari in the Serengeti last month; it could have been worse for the software mogul; after all, a lot of super-rich software makers are currently being mauled by a Snow Leopard.
Advanced Technology Investment
Co of Abu Dhabi paid $1.8 billion to buy the Singapore chip foundry Chartered Semiconductor . In 2002,Samsung of Korea passed Sony of Japan in market value; last week, it neared the valuation of Intel Corp of America,and is expected to get to $110 billion and pass the US company within months.
The high profile head of Google in China quit the search engine company to start up a venture fund to finance high-technology start-ups in China; Lee Kai-fu became Google's global president for vice, stationed in Beijing, in 2005;while he revelled in the spotlight of his job, his accomplishments are another matter; under his supervision, Google came under huge fire worldwide for kow-towing to the Beijing authorities on Internet censorship, while in the meantime, Number 2 Google actually lost market share to Baidu , the runaway search leader in China; his new company,Innovation Works , will start looking for investments with $115 million in funding.
It's not those darned kids, its you;according to technology analysts comScore , just 11 percent of Twitter users are between 12 and 17; your embrace of this weird communication system shatters the belief that it's always the young people who lead the way to pop innovations.
Britain's worst polluter: Well, the contest isn't over, but the current top candidate is the $50 million supercomputer at the Meteorological Department; according to press reports, the computer takes 1.2 Megawatts of energy to run 15 million MB of RAM and 1 trillion calculations a second for 400 scientists;all of that produces some weather forecasting material and 8,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Vicki Walker of NEW ZEALAND was fired FROM HER JOB for annoying coworkers by sending them her imperious email IN ALL CAPS DEMANDING THEY "FOLLOW THE BELOW CHECKLIST";unfortunately, the touchy-feelie New Zealand Employment Relations Au-thority fell for her heart-breaking story of how she had gone into debt, and they ordered that she be re-hired and paid $17,000 in lost wages and unspecified "harm"; her co-workers got nothing for having to put up with her back then and now again.
Monday, September 14, 2009
STARS CUTS IPO PRICE AHEAD OF SET DEBUT
Star Microelectronics yesterday set its IPO price at Bt4.95 per share, for a 25-30-per-cent discount from the prospective price.
"The share price should stay above the subscription price when the company starts trading on September 24, due mainly to signs of recovery in the electronics parts industry," SMT chairman Somnuk Chaikul said yesterday.
SMT also promised to pay an interim dividend of Bt0.14 to all investors subscribing to the 92 million initial public offering shares from tomorrow to Friday.
The IPO should receive a warm welcome, following satisfactory results in book building, he said.
Prospective investors were impressed with the company's average 65-per-cent growth in net profit in the past four years, he said.
To maintain that pace, SMT plans to expand its integrated circuit manufacturing capacity with an investment of Bt150 million for this and next year.
The project would be financed out of internal cashflow, as the proceeds from the IPO will be used to refinance its debts, which would bring the company's debt-to-equity ratio down from 1.1 to 0.5.
SMT expects profits to rise 20 per cent this year, from Bt201 million last year, due to orders returning particularly for ICs, which carry a 40-per-cent profit margin.
Though the margin for the microelectronics module assembly business is declining to about 10 per cent, the company still expects annual revenue to stay at last year's level of Bt12 billion.
"The net profit margin this year should increase to 6-7 per cent, from 5-6 per cent last year, as the company focuses on high-margin products and cost management," Somnuk said.
Paiboon Nalinthrangkurn, CEO of Tisco Securities, the deal's underwriter, also expects the growth story to continue for the company, when new high-margin products hit the market later this year.
The IPO price represents a price-to-earnings ratio of 7, compared to 8-10 of companies listed in the same sector of the Stock Exchange of Thailand, he said.
"The share price should stay above the subscription price when the company starts trading on September 24, due mainly to signs of recovery in the electronics parts industry," SMT chairman Somnuk Chaikul said yesterday.
SMT also promised to pay an interim dividend of Bt0.14 to all investors subscribing to the 92 million initial public offering shares from tomorrow to Friday.
The IPO should receive a warm welcome, following satisfactory results in book building, he said.
Prospective investors were impressed with the company's average 65-per-cent growth in net profit in the past four years, he said.
To maintain that pace, SMT plans to expand its integrated circuit manufacturing capacity with an investment of Bt150 million for this and next year.
The project would be financed out of internal cashflow, as the proceeds from the IPO will be used to refinance its debts, which would bring the company's debt-to-equity ratio down from 1.1 to 0.5.
SMT expects profits to rise 20 per cent this year, from Bt201 million last year, due to orders returning particularly for ICs, which carry a 40-per-cent profit margin.
Though the margin for the microelectronics module assembly business is declining to about 10 per cent, the company still expects annual revenue to stay at last year's level of Bt12 billion.
"The net profit margin this year should increase to 6-7 per cent, from 5-6 per cent last year, as the company focuses on high-margin products and cost management," Somnuk said.
Paiboon Nalinthrangkurn, CEO of Tisco Securities, the deal's underwriter, also expects the growth story to continue for the company, when new high-margin products hit the market later this year.
The IPO price represents a price-to-earnings ratio of 7, compared to 8-10 of companies listed in the same sector of the Stock Exchange of Thailand, he said.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Stars targets 30% growth in second half
Stars Microelectronics Plc, an electronics manufacturing services subcontractor,expects second-half growth of 25% to 30% as global IT demand rebounds with the economic recovery.
The company has also received a positive reception from investors ahead of its initial public offering later this month,said CEO Polsak Lertputipinyo.
The company has set indicative pricing for its IPO at 4.75 to 4.95 baht per share,representing a valuation of seven times earnings compared with a sector average of eight to 12 times.
SMT will float 92 million shares in its IPO with a two baht par value. Funds raised from the offering will be used to repay debt. Tisco Securities is the financial adviser and lead underwriter for the offering, to be held from Sept 16-18.
The company posted first-half profit of 115 million baht on sales revenue of 4.59 billion baht, said Mr Polsak.
Over the past four years, cumulative net profit growth has been a strong 65%,he said. Earnings per share for the first half were 0.42 baht, with a return on equity of 23.1%, ranking among the highest of listed electronic component manufacturers.
Prasert Tantayawit, head of investment banking at Tisco Securities, said the in-dicative pricing for the offering represented a 25% to 30% discount from the target price of most analysts.
SMT, founded in 1995, operates two main business lines - microelectronic module assembly (MMA) and integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing. Products include touchscreens for smart phones, hard-disk control boards used in laptop computers and sensors for the automotive and medical industries.
MMA accounts for 70% of revenue,with a profit margin of 30-40%. IC units offer a profit margin of about 50%.
The company operates a 2.7-billionbaht facility in Ayutthaya - with annual capacity of 80 million MMA units and 700 million IC chips - and has a US sales office in San Jose', California.
Mr Polsak said he was confident of a pickup in sales toward year-end.
"Usually in this business, the second half is better [than the first], due to the high season. The third quarter is shaping to be better than we expected. Profits and revenues in the second half should grow by around 25-30% from the first half," he said.
New IC orders were actual orders rather than inventory restocking, he added.
Production utilisation at SMT in the second half is projected to rise to between 80% and 90% for MMA products and to full capacity for IC, said Mr Polsak. Utilisation in the first half of the year was about 60%.
"We have already passed our breakeven point. If our capacity utilisation is over 50%, the rest is profit. We expect continuous growth," said Mr Polsak.
SMT is also developing new microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology for use in the auto industry in products such as side-airbag pressure sensors. The company claims to be the sole manufacturer of MEMS technology in Thailand.
SMT posted first-half revenue of 4.63 billion baht, down from 6.09 billion in the same period last year. First-half net profit increased to 115.28 million baht from 103.34 million a year earlier.
Second-quarter revenue slid to 2.46 billion baht, down from 3.08 billion in the same period last year. Second-quarter profit increased to 95.74 million, up from 14.87 million year-on-year.
The company has also received a positive reception from investors ahead of its initial public offering later this month,said CEO Polsak Lertputipinyo.
The company has set indicative pricing for its IPO at 4.75 to 4.95 baht per share,representing a valuation of seven times earnings compared with a sector average of eight to 12 times.
SMT will float 92 million shares in its IPO with a two baht par value. Funds raised from the offering will be used to repay debt. Tisco Securities is the financial adviser and lead underwriter for the offering, to be held from Sept 16-18.
The company posted first-half profit of 115 million baht on sales revenue of 4.59 billion baht, said Mr Polsak.
Over the past four years, cumulative net profit growth has been a strong 65%,he said. Earnings per share for the first half were 0.42 baht, with a return on equity of 23.1%, ranking among the highest of listed electronic component manufacturers.
Prasert Tantayawit, head of investment banking at Tisco Securities, said the in-dicative pricing for the offering represented a 25% to 30% discount from the target price of most analysts.
SMT, founded in 1995, operates two main business lines - microelectronic module assembly (MMA) and integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing. Products include touchscreens for smart phones, hard-disk control boards used in laptop computers and sensors for the automotive and medical industries.
MMA accounts for 70% of revenue,with a profit margin of 30-40%. IC units offer a profit margin of about 50%.
The company operates a 2.7-billionbaht facility in Ayutthaya - with annual capacity of 80 million MMA units and 700 million IC chips - and has a US sales office in San Jose', California.
Mr Polsak said he was confident of a pickup in sales toward year-end.
"Usually in this business, the second half is better [than the first], due to the high season. The third quarter is shaping to be better than we expected. Profits and revenues in the second half should grow by around 25-30% from the first half," he said.
New IC orders were actual orders rather than inventory restocking, he added.
Production utilisation at SMT in the second half is projected to rise to between 80% and 90% for MMA products and to full capacity for IC, said Mr Polsak. Utilisation in the first half of the year was about 60%.
"We have already passed our breakeven point. If our capacity utilisation is over 50%, the rest is profit. We expect continuous growth," said Mr Polsak.
SMT is also developing new microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology for use in the auto industry in products such as side-airbag pressure sensors. The company claims to be the sole manufacturer of MEMS technology in Thailand.
SMT posted first-half revenue of 4.63 billion baht, down from 6.09 billion in the same period last year. First-half net profit increased to 115.28 million baht from 103.34 million a year earlier.
Second-quarter revenue slid to 2.46 billion baht, down from 3.08 billion in the same period last year. Second-quarter profit increased to 95.74 million, up from 14.87 million year-on-year.
Monday, September 7, 2009
ATIC offers to buy top chip maker
An Abu Dhabi investment firm has offered to buy Singapore's Chartered Semiconductor for US$3.9 billion, which would create one of the world's largest microchip makers.
The buyout by Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC) comes as chip companies around the world look to boost sales after being hit hard by falling demand brought about by the global slump.
Chartered chairman James Norling said the firm had been looking at several "potential strategic options" and the offer from ATIC was the best.
"After carefully looking at all of these strategic options in front of us, we believe this proposal is definitely worthy for the company shareholders to consider," he said at a news briefing.
ATIC, Abu Dhabi's investment vehicle in the high-tech sector, is also the main shareholder in Globalfoundries, a joint venture with US firm Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), focused on making nextgeneration chips.
Chartered is the world's third-biggest maker of custom-made chips, but it has been struggling to catch up with leaders Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and United Microelectronics Corp (UMC), also of Taiwan.
It has also been hit by the global economic crisis, but the industry is banking on rising demand for "billions of new mobile phones, cars, televisions, computers and other devices" that are run by chips.
ATIC chief executive Ibrahim Ajami said the combined strengths of Chartered and Globalfoundries would make them number two in the world, behind market leader TSMC in terms of capacity.
"Right now Chartered is ranked, from the microchip perspective, as the third leading foundry in the world. A combination with Globalfoundries would put us as the second leading foundry in the world," he said.
ATIC, which is owned by the Abu Dhabi government, wants to buy each Chartered ordinary share at S$2.68 (US$1.86) in cash, valuing the company at about US$1.8 billion.
Including Chartered's debt and convertible redeemable preference shares totalling US$2.2 billion, the transaction would have a total value of about US$3.9 billion, the two companies said in a joint statement.
ATIC's offer per share for Chartered represents a premium of 14.2% on its 30-trading day volume weighted average price.
Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings, which owns about 62%of Chartered, has thrown its support behind the deal, said Norling.
Chartered chief executive Chia Song Hwee said the company would not solicit competitive bids, but would have to go through the process if there were unsolicited offers.
"All parties concerned are very committed to make this scheme go through,"he said at the news briefing.
ATIC chairman Waleed Al Mokarrab Al Muhairi said he believed Temasek's support for the deal would discourage any other interested parties.
"We believe that we are the best choice for Chartered's current investors. We believe we have a compelling offer on the table," he said.
The buyout by Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC) comes as chip companies around the world look to boost sales after being hit hard by falling demand brought about by the global slump.
Chartered chairman James Norling said the firm had been looking at several "potential strategic options" and the offer from ATIC was the best.
"After carefully looking at all of these strategic options in front of us, we believe this proposal is definitely worthy for the company shareholders to consider," he said at a news briefing.
ATIC, Abu Dhabi's investment vehicle in the high-tech sector, is also the main shareholder in Globalfoundries, a joint venture with US firm Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), focused on making nextgeneration chips.
Chartered is the world's third-biggest maker of custom-made chips, but it has been struggling to catch up with leaders Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and United Microelectronics Corp (UMC), also of Taiwan.
It has also been hit by the global economic crisis, but the industry is banking on rising demand for "billions of new mobile phones, cars, televisions, computers and other devices" that are run by chips.
ATIC chief executive Ibrahim Ajami said the combined strengths of Chartered and Globalfoundries would make them number two in the world, behind market leader TSMC in terms of capacity.
"Right now Chartered is ranked, from the microchip perspective, as the third leading foundry in the world. A combination with Globalfoundries would put us as the second leading foundry in the world," he said.
ATIC, which is owned by the Abu Dhabi government, wants to buy each Chartered ordinary share at S$2.68 (US$1.86) in cash, valuing the company at about US$1.8 billion.
Including Chartered's debt and convertible redeemable preference shares totalling US$2.2 billion, the transaction would have a total value of about US$3.9 billion, the two companies said in a joint statement.
ATIC's offer per share for Chartered represents a premium of 14.2% on its 30-trading day volume weighted average price.
Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings, which owns about 62%of Chartered, has thrown its support behind the deal, said Norling.
Chartered chief executive Chia Song Hwee said the company would not solicit competitive bids, but would have to go through the process if there were unsolicited offers.
"All parties concerned are very committed to make this scheme go through,"he said at the news briefing.
ATIC chairman Waleed Al Mokarrab Al Muhairi said he believed Temasek's support for the deal would discourage any other interested parties.
"We believe that we are the best choice for Chartered's current investors. We believe we have a compelling offer on the table," he said.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Makers divided over 3D TV
Consumer electronics companies at the IFA trade show in Berlin are divided over the potential of threedimensional television images, which require users to wear special spectacles to see the 3D illusion.
"Next year, television is going to change dramatically," said Yoshiiku Miyata, a Panasonic executive briefing reporters on the eve of the top fair, which began yesterday and runs till September 9.He declared Panasonic was in "pole position" as the first maker with a complete range of 3D technology, from production equipment for studios right through to consumer products under development.
Earlier this week, Sony chief executive Howard Stringer announced in Berlin his company's own venture into 3D,backed up by content from Sony's own Hollywood studio.
IFA is featuring a wide range of ever-
better high-definition flat-panel televisions, but not 3D ones.
Dutch-based Philips questioned whether the technology, which it said it had helped to invent, was trouble free and whether viewers would bother to wear the special spectacles while relaxing at home.
"3D is a television viewer's dream.But the technology still does not operate stably," said Andrea Ragnetti, chief of Philips Consumer Lifestyle.
Ragnetti said there were some alternatives that did not require viewers to put on eyeglasses, but they were not yet ready for the market.
Samsung of South Korea was also circumspect, suggesting broadcasters and DVD vendors would take a long time to offer films in 3D.
An executive at IFA said Samsung had been quietly adding 3D technology to some of its high-end products since 2007 and aimed for an early lead.
"We are ready, so that when the content is developed, we will be waiting for it in the living room," said Michael Zoeller of Samsung.
It will not be cheap. Sony's chief for Europe, Fujio Nishida, conceded that 3D televisions were bound to be among the most expensive on store shelves.
Sony aims for a simultaneous launch in Japan, Europe and the United States.
He said more details would be announced at the other big industry fair,the Consumer Electronics Show (CES)next January in Las Vegas.
Viewers are likely to be initially offered 3D movies on DVD, but the ultimate aim is clearly to offer live 3D coverage of football, baseball and basketball, giving the impression of being right there in the stadium.
Rob Enderle, a US analyst, voiced caution, saying in Berlin it could take up to seven years before the technology is mature. Moreover the Sony and Panasonic technologies are not compatible.
"The last thing we need is yet another war over formats," he said.
"Next year, television is going to change dramatically," said Yoshiiku Miyata, a Panasonic executive briefing reporters on the eve of the top fair, which began yesterday and runs till September 9.He declared Panasonic was in "pole position" as the first maker with a complete range of 3D technology, from production equipment for studios right through to consumer products under development.
Earlier this week, Sony chief executive Howard Stringer announced in Berlin his company's own venture into 3D,backed up by content from Sony's own Hollywood studio.
IFA is featuring a wide range of ever-
better high-definition flat-panel televisions, but not 3D ones.
Dutch-based Philips questioned whether the technology, which it said it had helped to invent, was trouble free and whether viewers would bother to wear the special spectacles while relaxing at home.
"3D is a television viewer's dream.But the technology still does not operate stably," said Andrea Ragnetti, chief of Philips Consumer Lifestyle.
Ragnetti said there were some alternatives that did not require viewers to put on eyeglasses, but they were not yet ready for the market.
Samsung of South Korea was also circumspect, suggesting broadcasters and DVD vendors would take a long time to offer films in 3D.
An executive at IFA said Samsung had been quietly adding 3D technology to some of its high-end products since 2007 and aimed for an early lead.
"We are ready, so that when the content is developed, we will be waiting for it in the living room," said Michael Zoeller of Samsung.
It will not be cheap. Sony's chief for Europe, Fujio Nishida, conceded that 3D televisions were bound to be among the most expensive on store shelves.
Sony aims for a simultaneous launch in Japan, Europe and the United States.
He said more details would be announced at the other big industry fair,the Consumer Electronics Show (CES)next January in Las Vegas.
Viewers are likely to be initially offered 3D movies on DVD, but the ultimate aim is clearly to offer live 3D coverage of football, baseball and basketball, giving the impression of being right there in the stadium.
Rob Enderle, a US analyst, voiced caution, saying in Berlin it could take up to seven years before the technology is mature. Moreover the Sony and Panasonic technologies are not compatible.
"The last thing we need is yet another war over formats," he said.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Hana revises up revenue forecast on fast recovery
Hana Microelectronics Plc (HANA), the country's biggest semiconductor manufacturer, has raised its revenue forecast this year to a contraction of only 18%,up from an estimated decline of 30%, in anticipation of a solid economic rebound.
"There will be an 18% contraction for our sales this year, but it is less than our previous estimate of a 30% decrease from last year," said Issra Sivakul, vicepresident and CPG general manager of Hana Semiconductor Co Ltd, a member of Hana Microelectronics Plc.
All economic data from the second quarter show a rebound in electronics export orders, driven by restocking by manufacturers and related industries,which also brought an improvement in Hana's second quarter.
The third quarter will also produce higher profit, as customers look to restock before the year-end, said Mr Issra.
The company has cut its prices this year to maintain sales in the face of consumers' weaker purchasing power,he added.
"It is also a peak period for this type of industry," said Mr Issra.
"From now on we will try to win market share, to reduce costs in terms of the supply chain and to raise our output by at least 10% to increase economies of scale."
Hana is also looking to manufacture new products such as a Windows 7 touchscreen interface, which will be ready in October.
To cut production costs, the company invested US$1 million in upgrading machinery in the first half of this year.
Hana plans to invest $10 million in the second half to raise its daily output of integrated circuits (IC) to 11 million units from 10 million today.
Another 120 million baht will be spent on purchasing land in Lamphun province for expanding printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) production from 2011.
The SET-listed electronic parts maker currently employs 7,993 people. It has recently taken on 600 additional staff and is likely to hire another 400-500 in the second half of this year.
First-half revenue was 6.05 billion baht,compared with 7.87 billion in the same period last year. Net profit was 705.44 million baht (0.86 baht a share), down 29% from 993.55 million (1.20 baht a share) a year earlier.
Shares of Hana closed yesterday on the SET at 19.80 baht, unchanged, in trade worth 8.06 million baht.
"There will be an 18% contraction for our sales this year, but it is less than our previous estimate of a 30% decrease from last year," said Issra Sivakul, vicepresident and CPG general manager of Hana Semiconductor Co Ltd, a member of Hana Microelectronics Plc.
All economic data from the second quarter show a rebound in electronics export orders, driven by restocking by manufacturers and related industries,which also brought an improvement in Hana's second quarter.
The third quarter will also produce higher profit, as customers look to restock before the year-end, said Mr Issra.
The company has cut its prices this year to maintain sales in the face of consumers' weaker purchasing power,he added.
"It is also a peak period for this type of industry," said Mr Issra.
"From now on we will try to win market share, to reduce costs in terms of the supply chain and to raise our output by at least 10% to increase economies of scale."
Hana is also looking to manufacture new products such as a Windows 7 touchscreen interface, which will be ready in October.
To cut production costs, the company invested US$1 million in upgrading machinery in the first half of this year.
Hana plans to invest $10 million in the second half to raise its daily output of integrated circuits (IC) to 11 million units from 10 million today.
Another 120 million baht will be spent on purchasing land in Lamphun province for expanding printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) production from 2011.
The SET-listed electronic parts maker currently employs 7,993 people. It has recently taken on 600 additional staff and is likely to hire another 400-500 in the second half of this year.
First-half revenue was 6.05 billion baht,compared with 7.87 billion in the same period last year. Net profit was 705.44 million baht (0.86 baht a share), down 29% from 993.55 million (1.20 baht a share) a year earlier.
Shares of Hana closed yesterday on the SET at 19.80 baht, unchanged, in trade worth 8.06 million baht.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Hana resumes investment after impressive Q2 results
Hana Microelectronics Plc, the country's biggest semiconductor packager, has started investing again and taking on staff to meet rising orders after posting better-than-expected financial results in the second quarter.
About 350 million to 500 million baht will be spent on new production equipment later this year, mainly in the integrated circuit (IC) division. Hana is also looking to hire 600 new staff, said chief financial officer Terry Weir.
"Hana will invest and hire labour to build the products according to customer demand. Therefore, as the recovery takes place and new products are ordered by our customers, we will have to increase investment to be able to meet that demand in the second half of the year," he said.
The SET-listed electronic parts maker currently employs about 8,000 people and is running at about 80% of capacity.
Customer inventory replenishment and partial economic recovery enabled Hana to perform better in the second quarter than in the first three months,and to beat its own expectations for the first half, said Mr Weir.
In the second quarter, Hana's net profit of 504 million baht was down only 7.6% year-on-year and up 151%from 201 million baht in the first quarter.
First-half net profit was 705.44 million baht (0.86 baht a share), down 29% from 993.55 million (1.20 baht a share) a year earlier.
Second-quarter sales revenue dropped 18% year-on-year to 3.22 billion baht.But sales were up 22% from the first quarter, with IC sales up 46% while microelectronics rose 16%, Hana said in a filing to the Stock Exchange of Thailand.
"The first half of 2009 was much better than was expected at the beginning of the year, thanks to customer inventory replenishment and partial economic recovery," said Mr Weir."The large extent of demand recovery can be seen in second-quarter results.[But] continuing strength of customer demand remains a challenge for the rest of the year."
Analysts were upbeat about Hana's results.
"Hana's stellar earnings of 504 million baht in the second quarter, an increase of 151% from the first quarter, beat our expectation by 36.3% and the consensus by 34.3%," KGI Securities (Thailand) said in a report."A higher-than-expected gross margin was the reason for the surprise."
Sales also showed a significant recovery from rock bottom in the first quarter. The company's balance sheet was solid, being debt-free and with cashon-hand of about 3.7 billion baht, KGI said.
Shares of Hana closed on Friday on the SET at 18.50 baht, up 40 satang, in trade worth 6.8 million baht.
About 350 million to 500 million baht will be spent on new production equipment later this year, mainly in the integrated circuit (IC) division. Hana is also looking to hire 600 new staff, said chief financial officer Terry Weir.
"Hana will invest and hire labour to build the products according to customer demand. Therefore, as the recovery takes place and new products are ordered by our customers, we will have to increase investment to be able to meet that demand in the second half of the year," he said.
The SET-listed electronic parts maker currently employs about 8,000 people and is running at about 80% of capacity.
Customer inventory replenishment and partial economic recovery enabled Hana to perform better in the second quarter than in the first three months,and to beat its own expectations for the first half, said Mr Weir.
In the second quarter, Hana's net profit of 504 million baht was down only 7.6% year-on-year and up 151%from 201 million baht in the first quarter.
First-half net profit was 705.44 million baht (0.86 baht a share), down 29% from 993.55 million (1.20 baht a share) a year earlier.
Second-quarter sales revenue dropped 18% year-on-year to 3.22 billion baht.But sales were up 22% from the first quarter, with IC sales up 46% while microelectronics rose 16%, Hana said in a filing to the Stock Exchange of Thailand.
"The first half of 2009 was much better than was expected at the beginning of the year, thanks to customer inventory replenishment and partial economic recovery," said Mr Weir."The large extent of demand recovery can be seen in second-quarter results.[But] continuing strength of customer demand remains a challenge for the rest of the year."
Analysts were upbeat about Hana's results.
"Hana's stellar earnings of 504 million baht in the second quarter, an increase of 151% from the first quarter, beat our expectation by 36.3% and the consensus by 34.3%," KGI Securities (Thailand) said in a report."A higher-than-expected gross margin was the reason for the surprise."
Sales also showed a significant recovery from rock bottom in the first quarter. The company's balance sheet was solid, being debt-free and with cashon-hand of about 3.7 billion baht, KGI said.
Shares of Hana closed on Friday on the SET at 18.50 baht, up 40 satang, in trade worth 6.8 million baht.
Delta expanding into solar power
Delta Electronics (Thailand) Plc has been in talks to acquire US and European solar power equipment makers as it has earmarked $200 million to diversifying into electrical power over the next two years.
"If you want to do business in the US, you have to acquire a US company.And if you need more market share in Europe, you have to do the acquisitions," Delta president Henry Shieh said yesterday.
"We are discussing with companies in the US and Europe in terms of shares and prices to make sure we do it right.About $100 million could be spent before 2012 and we have the capacity to double the amount."
Those companies, according to Mr Shieh, are $500-million businesses that are now having financial problems because of lower subsidies from governments in the face of the global recession.
Delta, the largest electronics firm on the Stock Exchange of Thailand by revenue and market capitalisation, says market conditions and its financial results have become more favourable for making new investments.
The market started to come back in June and July with some stocks depleting. Some urgent orders are placed this month, indicating that the demand is there, said Mr Shieh.
"At least we feel more comfortable now with our performance is getting better and moving toward the right trend," he noted."Our cash on hand of over 8 billion baht also supports our investments."
Anusorn Muttaraid, Delta's executive director, said the talks with the US company were expected to be concluded this quarter while negotiations with European parties could finish in the final quarter.
"The deals are targeted to cost less than 3 billion baht. At least we will have these two deals done this year,"Mr Anusorn said."Through the acquisition, Delta would not only acquire the plants but also the market and technology from the US and Europe."
Delta yesterday reported a net profit of 301 million baht in the second quarter,down by half from 621 million in the same period of last year, as revenue fell 27% to 6 billion baht.
In the first six months, earnings dropped to 812 million baht from 1.42 billion a year earlier as revenue decreased 22% to 12.42 billion baht.
Mr Anusorn said the company forecast that 2009 revenue would be about $900 million, down from $1 billion made in 2008.
Mr Shieh said Delta aimed to double its revenue to $2 billion in 2013.
Its plants are currently running at 65% of the maximum capacity, compared with 85% the same period of last year, he added.
KGI Securities said Delta's earnings in the quarter to June were in line with the expectations, off 41% from the first quarter, while its gross margin edged down from 25.8% to 26.4%.
"Despite weak earnings in the second quarter, Delta's balance sheet remains robust with a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.5 times. The company also has hefty cash on hand of 8.1 billion baht while short-term debt amounts to only 1.3 billion, without long-term debt," KGI said in a report.
DELTA shares closed yesterday on the Stock Exchange of Thailand at 16.10 baht, unchanged, in trade worth 28 million baht.
"If you want to do business in the US, you have to acquire a US company.And if you need more market share in Europe, you have to do the acquisitions," Delta president Henry Shieh said yesterday.
"We are discussing with companies in the US and Europe in terms of shares and prices to make sure we do it right.About $100 million could be spent before 2012 and we have the capacity to double the amount."
Those companies, according to Mr Shieh, are $500-million businesses that are now having financial problems because of lower subsidies from governments in the face of the global recession.
Delta, the largest electronics firm on the Stock Exchange of Thailand by revenue and market capitalisation, says market conditions and its financial results have become more favourable for making new investments.
The market started to come back in June and July with some stocks depleting. Some urgent orders are placed this month, indicating that the demand is there, said Mr Shieh.
"At least we feel more comfortable now with our performance is getting better and moving toward the right trend," he noted."Our cash on hand of over 8 billion baht also supports our investments."
Anusorn Muttaraid, Delta's executive director, said the talks with the US company were expected to be concluded this quarter while negotiations with European parties could finish in the final quarter.
"The deals are targeted to cost less than 3 billion baht. At least we will have these two deals done this year,"Mr Anusorn said."Through the acquisition, Delta would not only acquire the plants but also the market and technology from the US and Europe."
Delta yesterday reported a net profit of 301 million baht in the second quarter,down by half from 621 million in the same period of last year, as revenue fell 27% to 6 billion baht.
In the first six months, earnings dropped to 812 million baht from 1.42 billion a year earlier as revenue decreased 22% to 12.42 billion baht.
Mr Anusorn said the company forecast that 2009 revenue would be about $900 million, down from $1 billion made in 2008.
Mr Shieh said Delta aimed to double its revenue to $2 billion in 2013.
Its plants are currently running at 65% of the maximum capacity, compared with 85% the same period of last year, he added.
KGI Securities said Delta's earnings in the quarter to June were in line with the expectations, off 41% from the first quarter, while its gross margin edged down from 25.8% to 26.4%.
"Despite weak earnings in the second quarter, Delta's balance sheet remains robust with a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.5 times. The company also has hefty cash on hand of 8.1 billion baht while short-term debt amounts to only 1.3 billion, without long-term debt," KGI said in a report.
DELTA shares closed yesterday on the Stock Exchange of Thailand at 16.10 baht, unchanged, in trade worth 28 million baht.
Keypad maker to enter SET next month
Electronics component manufacturer Stars Microelectronics (Thailand) Plc aims to float on the Stock Exchange of Thailand next month to serving the rebound in global electronics industry.
The Thai-owned firm, which supplies keypads to leading brands such as Blackberry and Google T-Mobile, expects its net profit to rise by 15% this year on revenues exceeding 12 billion baht.
SMT would become the first locally owned electronics company to list in the Thai bourse for five years, said cofounder and chief executive Polsak Lertputipinyo.
"After the electronics component market dropped sharply in the final quarter of 2009 and the first three months of this year, we have seen the demand rebound in the second quarter," he said.
The manufacturer saw positive growth resume for about two months of the second quarter after a 10-15%year-on-year decline in the first three months.
First-half revenue totalled 4.59 million baht with a net profit of 115 million baht, both up 10% over the same period of 2008.
From 2004 to 2008 SMT's revenue grew by an annual average of 40%,from 4.46 billion baht to 12.13 billion.Net profit jumped at a cumulative annual rate of 65%, from 45 million baht to 201 million.
Some 92 million shares, or 25% of SMT's registered capital, will be sold in the initial public offering (IPO) in September to retail and institutional investors.
The proceeds will be used to repay debt and to financially restructure the firm to achieve a lower net interestbearing debt-to-equity ratio, which currently stands at 1.2 times.
Current earnings per share is 0.42 baht, with a return on equity of 23.1%.SMT has a 600-million-baht credit facility for capacity expansion and to serve 150 million baht in additional investments this year.
SMT's 2.7-billion-baht manufacturing plant in Bang Pa-in, Ayuthaya, is running at 60% of maximum capacity for exports. The facility has annual capacity of 80 million microelectronics modules assembly (MMA) components and 700 million integrated circuit (IC)units.
Mr Polsak said SMT has a 30% share of the Thai smart phone market and 10% of both laptop mouse pads and hard-disk drive control board.
Tisco Securities, SMT's financial advisor, said the electronics industry is one of the sectors which has rebounded quickly on signs of a global economic recovery. By jointly developing new products and technologies for clients the Thai electronics firm will be able to enjoy higher margins and win new contracts to improve its shipments.
In 2010, SMT plans to launch new airbag pressure sensors targeting luxury car brands, such as Mercedes, BMW and Audi, which gross margin is as high as 50%. Handheld laser projectors for cell phones will be introduced to boost its MMA business' margins which now stand at 20%.
The company can continue to increase its profit during the global recession. Investors should view SMT as a potential stock for alternative investment, said Tisco.
The Thai-owned firm, which supplies keypads to leading brands such as Blackberry and Google T-Mobile, expects its net profit to rise by 15% this year on revenues exceeding 12 billion baht.
SMT would become the first locally owned electronics company to list in the Thai bourse for five years, said cofounder and chief executive Polsak Lertputipinyo.
"After the electronics component market dropped sharply in the final quarter of 2009 and the first three months of this year, we have seen the demand rebound in the second quarter," he said.
The manufacturer saw positive growth resume for about two months of the second quarter after a 10-15%year-on-year decline in the first three months.
First-half revenue totalled 4.59 million baht with a net profit of 115 million baht, both up 10% over the same period of 2008.
From 2004 to 2008 SMT's revenue grew by an annual average of 40%,from 4.46 billion baht to 12.13 billion.Net profit jumped at a cumulative annual rate of 65%, from 45 million baht to 201 million.
Some 92 million shares, or 25% of SMT's registered capital, will be sold in the initial public offering (IPO) in September to retail and institutional investors.
The proceeds will be used to repay debt and to financially restructure the firm to achieve a lower net interestbearing debt-to-equity ratio, which currently stands at 1.2 times.
Current earnings per share is 0.42 baht, with a return on equity of 23.1%.SMT has a 600-million-baht credit facility for capacity expansion and to serve 150 million baht in additional investments this year.
SMT's 2.7-billion-baht manufacturing plant in Bang Pa-in, Ayuthaya, is running at 60% of maximum capacity for exports. The facility has annual capacity of 80 million microelectronics modules assembly (MMA) components and 700 million integrated circuit (IC)units.
Mr Polsak said SMT has a 30% share of the Thai smart phone market and 10% of both laptop mouse pads and hard-disk drive control board.
Tisco Securities, SMT's financial advisor, said the electronics industry is one of the sectors which has rebounded quickly on signs of a global economic recovery. By jointly developing new products and technologies for clients the Thai electronics firm will be able to enjoy higher margins and win new contracts to improve its shipments.
In 2010, SMT plans to launch new airbag pressure sensors targeting luxury car brands, such as Mercedes, BMW and Audi, which gross margin is as high as 50%. Handheld laser projectors for cell phones will be introduced to boost its MMA business' margins which now stand at 20%.
The company can continue to increase its profit during the global recession. Investors should view SMT as a potential stock for alternative investment, said Tisco.
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