Retail News CRM

Author: Mei Ling Tan

  • BNI reports healthy growth with profit up 79.9 percent

    BNI reports healthy growth with profit up 79.9 percent

    State lender PT. Bank Negara Indonesia Persero Tbk (BNI) reported a strong growth of 79.9 percent year-on-year in profit to Rp4.37 trillion in the second quarter of 2016 despite a decline in credit quality.

    President Director of the countrys fourth largest bank in assets Achmad Baiquni attributed the rise in profit to high growth in credits and fee based income, and efficiency in cost of fund.

    “Our cost of funds dropped to 3.1 percent from 3.2 percent,” Baiquni said here on Friday.

    BNI outstanding credit grew in two digit by 23.7 percent year on year (yoy) to Rp288.7 trillion.

    However, the non performing loan (NPL) of the bank also rose from 2.7 percent to 3 percent gross by the end of the first half of this year.

    He acknowledged the quality of credit assets became a problem shadowing the performance of the bank in the first six months of the year.

    Therefore, BNI has to increase its reserve funds from 138.8 percent in the second quarter 2015 to 142.8 percent in the same period in 2016.

    The increase in the credit of the publicly listed bank resulted in a rose in its net interest income to Rp13.91 trillion or an increase of 11.7 percent yoy.

    Its non interest income including fee based income grew 28.7 percent to Rp4.43 trillion.

    Baiquni said business credit disbursements sustained credit portfolio as high as 73 percent with annual growth of 25.6 percent to Rp260.7 trillion.

    Corporate credits accounted for 25.1 percent of its business credits.

    The bank also recorded a soaring growth of 331 percent or Rp7.3 trillion in low interest Peoples Business Credit (KUR) pushing up KUR contribution to outstanding credit to 19.9 percent from 5.6 percent earlier.

    Baiquni attributed the high growth to facility of guarantee and subsidy on interest offered by the government.

    “Speaking about target, we prefer the government to set target for us,” he said.

    The bank holds Rp391.4 trillion in third party funds or an increase of 19.6 percent yoy, dominated by cheap funds (current account saving account (CASA) making up 60.4 percent and deposits making up the rest, he said.

    With the outstanding credits and third party funds, BNI has assets valued at Rp539.1 trillion by the end of he second quarter of 2016.

  • Epicentre Asia raises cash for expansion

    Epicentre Asia raises cash for expansion

    Apple products retailer Epicentre Asia plans to raise S$11.45 million (US$8.44 million) by issuing 45.8 million private shares to new buyers.

    KGI Fraser Securities is the placement agent for the issue, with the price being not be less than 25 cents per new share. These placement shares represent 49.1 per cent of the current
    share capital of Epicentre.

    Epicentre has five stores in Singapore, including two on Orchard Rd which could be expected to take a big hit in turnover terms when Singapore’s first Apple Store opens later this year. It has six stores in Malaysia and also sells online.

    Half of the net proceeds raised by the share issue will be used to support business development and provide liquidity for expansion. The rest will be deployed for general working capital purposes, the company says.

    Earlier this year, Epicentre raised $1 million on debt crowd-finance platform MoolahSense, and the company says this debt will be repaid through the sale of merchandise.

  • 3 HK unveils new roaming services

    3 HK unveils new roaming services

    3 Hong Kong, the mobile division of Hutchison Telecommunications Hong Kong Holdings Limited (HTHKH), has introduced new monthly plans and roaming passes, enabling customers to use mobile services in Macau and six European countries.

    HTHKH chief operating officer Jennifer Tan said the monthly 3Like Home plans and two types of roaming pass are tailored to the needs of frequent leisure and business travelers traversing Macau and Europe.

    The monthly “3LikeHome” plans, which start at HK$168/month ($21.66) (HK and Macau) and HK$508 (HK, Macau and six European countries), will offer equal local and roaming data usage entitlements, plus a quota of voice minutes to be shared between local use and when roaming.

    Devices will be automatically connected to 3 Group networks when in Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Sweden and the UK, as well as Macau.

    The new plans will allow customers to make calls to numbers in the locality where they are present, and Hong Kong, or receive calls from any region without incurring additional charges. The roaming data element of usage allows customers making frequent business trips to access the internet in Macau and the six designated European countries as if they were in Hong Kong, the operator said.

    To meet demand at this busy travel time of the year, 3 Hong Kong has also launched one-off roaming plans including a 3-day ‘3 Macau Roaming Pass’ and a 10-day ‘3 Europe Roaming Pass’, which will provide free-to-use voice and data entitlements in Macau and six European countries for families and frequent leisure travelers.

    In addition, 3 HK is offering 90-minutes free daily WiFi service to all mobile users in the city, as the number of its hotspots exceeding 20,000 across the city.

    Until the end of September, any mobile user in Hong Kong can access WiFi service for three sessions to a total of 90 minutes a day using a smartphone, tablet or laptop at more than 20,000 WiFi hotspots run by 3HK.

    Tan said 3 HK will build 3,000 more WiFi hotspots in the second half of this year, bringing the total number to more than 23,000.

  • Aussie ISP takes on NBN with microwave broadband

    Aussie ISP takes on NBN with microwave broadband

    Lightning Broadband is offering fiber connectivity in parts of Melbourne and plans to guide its roll out plans based on demand. Potential customers are able to register for interest on the website.

    The ISP is offering 100Mbps symmetrical plans with unlimited data for A$120 ($90) per month on a 24-month contract. The NBN’s 100Mbps downlink plans offer only 25Mbps uplink.

    Lightning Broadband is also offering 25Mbps, 50Mbps and 75Mbps plans, starting from A$75.

    For business customers, Lighting Broadband will offer dedicated 1000Mbps symmetrical microwave links that will not share equipment with other users.

    Founder Jeremy Rich told that the company believes that many Australians are sick of waiting for the NBN to arrive in their area, and are interested in adopting high-speed broadband today.

    The NBN’s ambitious rollout plans have been delayed repeatedly since the project was announced.

    The project has also been scaled back under the recently re-elected government – the NBN was originally intended to deliver FTTH providing wholesale speeds of up to 100Mbps to 93% of the population, but has since been redesigned to use a mix of access technologies, including FTTN, HFC and fixed wireless.

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  • Huawei grows 1H16 revenue by 40%

    Huawei grows 1H16 revenue by 40%

    Huawei grew its sales revenues for the first half of the year by 40% to 245.5 billion yuan ($36.6 billion), despite a decline in its operating margin.

    The vendor reported an operating margin of 12%, down from 18% in the same period last year, partly as a result of increased investment in the company’s smartphone business as part of an aggressive push to become the market leader in 4-5 years.

    “We achieved steady growth across all three of our business groups, thanks to a well-balanced global presence and an unwavering focus on our pipe strategy,” Huawei’s CFO Sabrina Meng commented.

    “We are confident that Huawei will maintain its current momentum, and round out the full year in a positive financial position backed by sound ongoing operations.”

    Huawei has not yet disclosed its profit for the half-year period. Looking ahead, the company said it plans to continue to adhere to its pipe strategy, and invest heavily in R&D in areas including 5G and the IoT.

    In the carrier business, Huawei said it is focusing its attention on supporting operators’ digital transformation in four core areas – business, operations, architecture, and networks.

  • Google rolls out Accelerated Mobile Pages for ads

    Google rolls out Accelerated Mobile Pages for ads

    Google first unveiled and rolled out its Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) project in October last year in a bid to allow content to load faster on mobile devices. Last week the company announced a solution designed to address the problem of slow loading ads.

    For the uninitiated, AMP is an open-source project that allows a mobile browser to load web pages much faster by simplifying the underlying HTML code for faster loading. In a way, the new AMP for ads (A4A) does the same by allowing marketers to create optimized ads that will load as fast as AMP-formatted content.

    “With AMP for Ads, we’re bringing everything that’s good and fast about AMP to ads. Unfortunately, most advertisers’ campaign creatives are not fully optimized for mobile experiences,” wrote Paul Muret, the vice president of Display, Video and Analytics at Google in a blog entry.

    “AMP for Ads allows advertisers to build beautifully-designed ads in AMP HTML so that the entire AMP experience, both the publisher’s content and the advertiser’s creative, load simultaneously at AMP-speed,” he wrote.

    The performance speedup is achieved by separating ad requests from ad rendering. This allows for faster ad rendering at no impact to the client CPU or memory cost. AMP pages will continue to support non-AMP ads at the moment.

    “From the client’s perspective making the request itself is super cheap, but its side effect (the rendering of the ad) is expensive,” explained Malte Ubl, who is the tech lead for the AMP project in a lengthy update. “By separating the two, A4A achieves much faster ad rendering at no additional CPU and memory cost.”

    Speeding up the loading time aside, A4A will take advantage of AMP’s features by minimizing resource impact. This is achieved by only animating display elements that are only visible on the screen, and throttling refresh rates in cases where the device is unable to achieve a specified target.

    There is no question that slow load times can drive users away, and is especially important for mobile devices. Like AMP, there is no reason that A4A will not meet with similar levels of success with marketers.

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  • CapitaLand Mall Trust overcomes ‘soft’ retail market

    CapitaLand Mall Trust overcomes ‘soft’ retail market

    CapitaLand Mall Trust (CMT) has overcome what it describes as a “soft” Singapore retail market to increase its profit and distribution.

    A 3.7 per cent increase in distributable income to S$193.9 million (US$143 million) for the first half-year coincides with a second quarter distributable income of S$97.1 million, a 3.3 per cent increase over the $94 million for the same period last year.

    “Despite a soft retail market, CMT continued to produce steady operational results in the first half,” says CMTML CEO Wilson Tan. “Backed by our portfolio of well-located shopping malls and extensive network of retailers, CMT had year-on-year increases of 3.6 and 2.3 per cent in shopper traffic and tenants’ sales per square foot respectively.

    “As at June 30, portfolio occupancy remained high at 97.9 per cent.”

    CMT’s Funan DigitaLife Mall, which closed from July 1, will undergo a three year redevelopment to become a lifestyle destination in the revitalised Civic and Cultural District, says Tan. Scheduled to be ready in the fourth quarter of 2019, the integrated development will include retail, office and serviced residences. The mall redevelopment is expected to achieve a return on investment of 6.5 per cent.

    For the second quarter, CMT registered higher gross revenue and net property income (NPI) of 7.1 and 6 per cent respectively year-on-year, mainly through a contribution of $14.5 million to gross revenue from Bedok Mall, acquired on October 1, and higher rental revenue from IMM Building, Tampines Mall and Bukit Panjang Plaza after asset enhancement.

    This was partially offset by the divestment of Rivervale Mall in December and lower gross revenue from Funan DigitaLife Mall.

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  • Unilever buys Dollar Shave Club

    Unilever buys Dollar Shave Club

    Consumer products giant Unilever is to buy California-based Dollar Shave Club, an online razor delivery subscription business that has 3.2 million members.

    Terms of the transaction were not officially disclosed, but sources say the FMCG giant is paying the razor business US$1 billion in cash.

    “Dollar Shave Club is an innovative and disruptive male grooming brand with incredibly deep connections to its diverse and highly engaged consumers,” said Kees Kruythoff, president of Unilever North America.

    “In addition to its unique consumer and data insights, Dollar Shave Club is the category leader in its direct-to-consumer space. We plan to leverage the global strength of Unilever to support Dollar Shave Club in achieving its full potential in terms of offering and reach.”

    Michael Dubin, founder or Dollar Shave Club, will continue to serve as its CEO.

    “We have long admired Unilever’s purpose-driven business leadership and its category expertise is unmatched,” said Dubin. “We are excited to be part of the family.”

    Subject to regulatory approval, the transaction is expected to close during the third quarter.

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  • SMI helping launch Ippudo in Myanmar

    SMI helping launch Ippudo in Myanmar

    Singapore Myanmar Investco (SMI) will launch Japanese ramen restaurant chain Ippudo in Myanmar early next year.

    Brand owner Chikaranomoto Holdings will provide training programs for SMI to set up and run the Myanmar restaurants.

    ippudo outside

    “We see abundant growth opportunities within the F&B retail market in Myanmar, and the time is ripe for us to introduce the Ippudo brand and cuisine to the growing middle class,” says SMI president/CEO Mark Bedingham.

    SMI, which is involved in consumer products and services in Myanmar, is looking to invest in retail and F&B over the next three years. It has also signed a franchise agreement with restaurant group Crystal Jade and The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.

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  • Tri Indonesia partners with mCarbon to deploy next-gen CLM platform in Indonesia

    Tri Indonesia partners with mCarbon to deploy next-gen CLM platform in Indonesia

    South Asia’s leading technology solution provider, mCarbon announced new partnership agreement with Hutchison 3 Indonesia (H3I) the holder of 3 (Tri) GSM Provider. Combining the compelling digital experiences driven by Tri and mCarbon’s analytics powered solution I-CLM, will enable Tri to augment customer experience through contextually relevant messaging across the entire customer journey.

    ICLM is a comprehensive customer lifecycle management platform that provides acumen to the operators through mechanisms such as big data analytics and fulfillment. The platform has omni-channel interaction capabilities, which are directed towards increasing customer affinity. This end-to-end solution tailors engagement based on individual preferences that vary through the entire customer journey.

    Announcing the launch of next gen CLM, Rajesh Razdan, Founder and CEO, mCarbon said “I am delighted that Tri has chosen mCarbon for this important initiative. The deployment of our solution will provide Tri, ways to establish a new level of customer loyalty through consistent customer experience across channels while maximizing monetization of digital channels. Through our partnership, we are confident to be able to provide a significant economic impact and bring a positive synergy to the brand’s further growth in Indonesia”

    “We believe in this age of digital contiguity, it is imperative for us as service providers to deliver unmatched customer experiences,”said Randeep Singh Sekhon, President DirectorTri Indonesia “Our association with mCarbon is a step towards our endeavor to enhance overall engagement with our customers with relevant and real time offerings based on personalised usage and have a step up towards overall customer experience”

    mCarbon introduced Interactive Customer Lifecycle management platform for telcos to digitally personalize experience and generate revenue through multiple streams. The product is designed keeping in mind the enormity of the data generated as well as its dynamism. It is capable of providing a competitive advantage to the operators by profiling subscriber and evaluating the strategic insights that are aimed towards improving customer value.

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  • Fonterra benefits from growing milk consumption

    Fonterra benefits from growing milk consumption

    Dairy giant Fonterra Brands Indonesia president director Achyut Kasireddy, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key and Trade Minister Todd McClay share a conversation during an event at Fonterra manufacturing plant in Cikarang, West Java, on Tuesday. Key will end on Wednesday his three-day visit to Indonesia, during which he has brought along dozens of executives from various New Zealand companies in an effort to strengthen economic ties and consolidate several investment opportunities.

    New Zealand dairy firm Fonterra Brands Indonesia has reaped benefits from Indonesia’s growing milk consumption, becoming New Zealand’s poster boy for success.

    The company, part of multinational dairy cooperative Fonterra, sees Indonesia as one of its priority markets, with huge promise amid dairy product demand growth.

    According to the Agriculture Ministry, annual household consumption of dairy products rose to 313 ounces per capita in 2014 from only 209 ounces in 2013.

    As demands grow, Fonterra Brands Indonesia president director Achyut Kasireddy said on Tuesday that it was focusing to fulfill the capacity of its plant to “cater to the demand of dairy products for the next three years”.

    It operates a Rp 340 billion (US$25.98 million)-worth plant in Cikarang, West Java. The plant commenced operations last September and is Fonterra’s biggest investment in Southeast Asia in the last decade.

    Utilization rate of the plant has hit 60 percent of its full potential to produce 16,000 tons of milk powder a year and up to 87,000 packages of dairy products a day. It markets several milk brands in Indonesia, including Anlene, Anchor Boneeto and Anmum.

    Kasireddy said Fonterra may expand its investment in the country should it utilize the plant well.

    It deems upcoming investment as important to accommodate changes in consumers’ taste and preference, resulting in different product types, such as powders, liquids and any other formats.

    “For the future, there may be other opportunities that we will seriously look at. There will be a new concept and they are all in the concept stage right now,” he said without going into details.

    He claimed that Fonterra Brands Indonesia had also substantially invested in training for farmers to boost their production. It imports around 75 percent of its ingredients for milk powder from New Zealand and hopes to leverage the farmers’ products in the future.

    “As we keep helping local dairy communities transform their farming and enhance their production, the country is going to have high quality milk produced locally that will be available for companies like us,” he said.

    New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said during his visit to the plant that the company could be at the forefront of the growing demand for dairy products in Asia.

    “These are markets where, inevitably, as the consumer base gets wealthier, demand grows not only for more protein but for more security and quality in its food. That’s where Fonterra fits in,” said Key in his speech.

    He said the plant was an example of how New Zealand and Indonesia could benefit from investment in the dairy industry.

    “This [Fonterra’s plant] is living proof of work by the New Zealand government to pave way for New Zealand companies to develop a footprint and grow New Zealand’s reach to the world,” Key said.

    Key was accompanied by New Zealand Trade Minister Todd McClay and a delegation of New Zealand businesspeople for the plant visit, which was part of his two-day visit to Indonesia. He met with President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Monday and discussed economic cooperation.

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  • Chinese beauty retail market predicted to reach $50bn

    Chinese beauty retail market predicted to reach $50bn

    Despite less frequent purchases, the high demand for skincare products will see the Chinese beauty retail market continue strong growth to reach 338 billion yuan (US$50 billion) in value by 2020, says a new report.

    Research by Mintel shows that 65 per cent of consumers spent more on facial skincare last year than in 2014, despite consumers buying beauty products less often.

    Purchase rates for all beauty and personal-care categories surveyed by Mintel slowed during the three months to October last year. The categories most affected are hair beauty products, beauty supplements and fragrances, falling 32 per cent, 28 per cent and 26 per cent respectively.

    Total retail sales of cosmetics in China grew 12.3 per cent to reach 204.9 billion yuan last year.

    “The beauty retailing market seems resistant to decline, and this is mainly because the dynamic development of the facial skincare market,” says Mintel senior beauty and personal care analyst Chen Wenwen.

    “To leverage their passion and spending power, it is essential for both retailers and manufacturers to engage consumers via mobile platforms.”

    As many as 44 per cent of consumers used a mobile device to pay for beauty/personal care products online in the three months to October – double the number since 2014.

  • Indonesian coffee showcase to open in Seoul

    Indonesian coffee showcase to open in Seoul

    Indonesia has high hopes of carving out a share of the crowded Korean domestic cafe scene and coffee market.

    A cafe specialising in artisanal Indonesian coffee is planned to open soon on the Bojeong-dong Cafe Street in Seoul. It will sell ground coffee and coffee beans from different regions in Indonesia, according to the Southeast Asian nation’s small and medium enterprises minister Anak Agung Gede Puspayoga.

    “As one of the top coffee consumers in the world, South Korea should buy more coffee from Indonesia,” he said.

    According to USDA data, South Korea’s coffee market is estimated at more than US$3 billion annually. Indonesia does not believe it is getting its fair share.

    The planned Indonesian coffee cafe will initially sell coffee beans grown in three cities: Temanggung in Central Java, Denpasar in Bali and Bandung in West Java, including Priyangan coffee, Indonesia’s version of kopi Luwak, the famed civet coffee, and Temanggung, its Arabica and Robusta coffee.

    The shop is part of a partnership hatched between the Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise, or KFME – which represents South Korea’s 7 million small businesses – and the non-profit International Council of Small Business.

    The partnership will also see prominent Korean bakeries provide training for Indonesian bakers.

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  • Volkswagen’s Audi plans electric car push to put heat on Tesla

    Volkswagen’s Audi plans electric car push to put heat on Tesla

    Audi will aim for electric cars to account for a quarter of its sales by 2025 as part of a strategic overhaul following the emissions scandal at parent Volkswagen, company sources said, in a move that could step up the challenge to U.S. group Tesla.

    Audi, which has been slow to embrace battery-powered vehicles, will now invest about a third of its research and development (R&D) budget into electric cars, digital services, and autonomous driving, two company sources told Reuters.

    Based on the 1.8 million cars sold by the German automaker last year, that would mean it selling at least 450,000 electric cars a year. Factoring in an expected rise in sales, that could turn Audi into a major competitor to Tesla (TSLA.O), which believes it can sell 500,000 electric cars by 2020 or sooner.

    With the exception of BMW (BMWG.DE), Germany’s luxury automakers have been late to develop electric vehicles, a market which is still loss-making. But Audi’s parent Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) is under pressure to clean up its image in the wake of its emissions-test cheating scandal.

    Audi CEO Rupert Stadler plans to outline details of the new business roadmap to more than 2,000 managers on Wednesday at a closed-door conference in Munich, the sources said.

    An Audi spokesman declined to comment. German business daily Handelsblatt reported late on Monday about Audi’s plans.

    Figures compiled for Reuters by LMC Automotive show German trio BMW, Mercedes-Benz (DAIGn.DE) and Audi – the world’s largest producers of luxury cars – rank 12th, 14th and 22nd respectively when it comes to annual sales of electric and hybrid vehicles, trailing Toyota, Honda, Lexus and Nissan.

    LACK OF DEMAND

    In the wake of Volkswagen’s diesel test cheating, regulators around the world have intensified a clampdown on toxic fumes, potentially providing a boost in demand for zero emission cars.

    Customers have, however, been slow to adopt electric cars which have a limited operating range and long recharging times.

    Of the 14,202,024 new cars registered in the European Union and the European Free Trade Association last year, only 186,170 were electric vehicles and 234,170 were hybrids, figures from European auto association ACEA show.

    Year-to-date growth for electric vehicles has been slowing. While sales jumped by 55 percent last year, they have risen just 15 percent to 37,000 so far in 2016, according to JATO Dynamics.

    “Some governments in Northern Europe where most of the electric vehicles are sold have announced fewer incentives. At the same time there hasn’t been any important new launch in the electric vehicle segment,” said Felipe Munoz, global automotive analyst with JATO.

    The lack of an electric sport utility vehicle, and broad demand for hybrid vehicles, has dampened demand in pure electric cars, JATO added.

    To free up funds for the new strategy, Audi plans cutbacks in its conventional combustion car program including steps to reduce country-specific variants of engines and transmissions, the sources said, without being more specific.

    Volkswagen last month announced plans to spend billions of euros on electric cars, ride-hailing and automated driving to become a world leader in green transport by 2025.

    In 2015, Audi spent 4.24 billion euros ($4.69 billion) on R&D. Of the brand’s 50 or so models, only two are electric or semi-electric and Audi is now taking orders on a third, the Q7 e-tron plug-in hybrid.

  • DHL collaborates with Electrolux on LCL ocean freight shipments

    DHL collaborates with Electrolux on LCL ocean freight shipments

    Electrolux and DHL collaborates. As of now, DHL Global Forwarding, the air and ocean freight specialist of Deutsche Post DHL Group, is responsible for the majority of Electrolux’ global ocean freight Less-Than-Container-Load (LCL) shipments.

    The appointment by the Swedish home appliance manufacturer comprises an annual estimated cargo volume of more than 20,000 cubic meters, approximately 70 percent of their global volume, and includes shipments from all regions including Asia, Oceania, North America, Europe and Latin America.

    “LCL shipments are important to Electrolux, particularly for project shipments, small urgent consignments and spare parts distribution, and are an integral part of our global supply chain. We have chosen DHL Global Forwarding for this task due to the unparalleled global network coverage and the high reliability which DHL Ocean Connect LCL has been providing for many years now,” said Bjorn Vang Jensen, Vice President, Global Logistics at Electrolux.

    DHL’s ocean freight network for LCL shipments includes more than 45,000 Container Freight Station point pairs which connect the globe. The company’s “Shipped as Booked” policy guarantees that goods are scheduled for a specific vessel and will ship on that vessel whether the container is full or not.

    This has been a major criterion for Electrolux in the selection process, since special project or spare part shipments need to be shipped in various, fluctuating quantities and for which demand is unpredictable.

    Moreover, these volumes are not necessarily sufficient for a full container box all the time.

    “We are extremely delighted to continue our long-lasting relationship with Electrolux. This new nomination is a fantastic acknowledgement of our DHL Ocean Connect LCL offering and the services provided in other areas in recent years,” says Michael Young, Executive Vice President, Global Head Marketing & Sales, DHL Global Forwarding.

    Electrolux has been a DHL customer for more than 10 years. The other services that DHL provides for the company are global airfreight, international supply chain services, customs brokerage and multimodal solutions including rail and trucking.

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