Retail News CRM

Tag: #growth

  • Singapore economy grew 2% in 2015, weakest since 2009

    Singapore economy grew 2% in 2015, weakest since 2009

    The Republic’s economy expanded by 2 per cent in 2015, the weakest annual growth since 2009 when the economy was hit by the global financial crisis, according to figures released by the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) on Wednesday (Feb 24).

    The figure was a sharp drop from the 3.3 per cent growth the previous year, and was revised downwards from the 2.1 per cent growth initially projected.

    Growth was mainly supported by the wholesale and retail trade, and finance and insurance sectors, according to MTI.

    For the fourth quarter, the economy expanded by a slower-than-expected 1.8 per cent from a year ago, after industrial production in December suffered its biggest year-on-year slump in eight months. The initial estimate was for a growth of 2 per cent.

    On a quarter-on-quarter seasonally-adjusted annualised basis, the economy expanded by 6.2 per cent in the fourth quarter, MTI said.

    The MTI has maintained its forecast of growth between 1 per cent and 3 per cent this year.

    “Even though global growth is expected to improve, the continued slowdown in China, the services-driven nature of growth in the US, as well as the trends of in-sourcing in China and the US, may mean that external demand for our exporters may not see a significant boost this year,” said MTI’s Permanent Secretary Ow Foong Pheng.

    “Lower oil prices have weakened the prospects for new rig orders for firms in the marine and offshore segment, and heightened the risks of further deterrents and cancellations of existing orders,” she added.

    The economic data also showed that labour productivity, as measured by value added per worker, grew by 0.5 per cent in the fourth quarter – the first improvement since the first quarter of 2014 – driven by the wholesale and retail trade, and construction sectors.

    For 2015 as a whole, overall labour productivity fell by 0.1 per cent, marginally improving from the decline of 0.5 per cent in 2014.

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  • Facebook Co-Founder Saverin Among Investors in Indonesia’s Orami

    Facebook Co-Founder Saverin Among Investors in Indonesia’s Orami

    Facebook Inc. co-founder Eduardo Saverin, who’s been stepping up his investments in Southeast Asian technology startups, joined a $15 million round of financing for Indonesian e-commerce startup Orami.

    Other investors included the technology-focused investment arm of Indonesia’s Sinar Mas Group, Shanghai-based Gobi Partners Inc., Velos Partners and Ardent Capital LLC, according to a statement Wednesday. Orami is the new brand for the female-focused business formed through the merger of Moxy and Bilna and is led by Chief Executive Officer Jeremy Fichet. It plans to expand to other countries in the region.

    “The Orami team is on top of its game with a laser focus on the intersection of social commerce, content and women,” Saverin said in the statement. “Between Thailand and Indonesia, where more than five million babies are born a year, women not only serve as the gate to the home but are the key drivers of rapidly growing economy and future generation.”

    Saverin’s recent investments include online news site Tech in Asia, car rental service Silvercar, and Hopscotch, a shopping site for Indian moms.

    Orami now has almost 500 employees in Indonesia and Thailand. Some 75 percent of its customers are women and the startup gets about three million visits a month.

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  • China Consumption Growth To Stay Strong In 2016

    China Consumption Growth To Stay Strong In 2016

    China’s consumption will grow at a quick pace in 2016, the country’s Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng assured investors Tuesday, while tackling issues such as impact of yuan devaluation, building more free trade zones and the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) at a news conference.

    A slowdown in China’s traditional economic drivers — heavy industries and manufacturing — last year sent jitters in global financial markets and commodity markets, as China’s policymakers look to shift the balance of the economy toward a consumption-led growth.

    “China realized a major transformation of economic growth, from growth mainly driven by investments and foreign trade to one mainly driven by domestic demand, especially by consumption,” the minister said. In terms of consumption, China’s total retail sales of consumer goods rose 10.7 percent to hit 30.1 trillion yuan ($4.59 trillion) in 2015, he added.

    Consumption accounted for 66.4 percent of China’s GDP growth in 2015, the Chinese statistics bureau said in January.

    A weaker yuan has not had a direct impact on China’s foreign-trade growth, Gao said, adding: “I don’t believe yuan exchange-rate volatility since the August reform can have big impact on our trade.” The renminbi, has declined by a further 3 percent against the U.S. dollar after China devalued its currency by nearly 2 percent on Aug. 11 last year.

    Earlier in February, China had announced monthly trade figures that missed expectations with exports slipping 6.6 percent in January compared to a year earlier, while imports fell 14.4 percent year-on-year.

    China’s trade decline in 2015 was much lower than those of its main trading partners and the world in general, Gao said Tuesday.

    Gao also said that the ambitious TPP agreement, signed earlier in February among twelve Pacific Rim countries — of which China is not a member — and the China-led Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, are moving in the same direction.

    “Bejing does not think that the (TPP) targets China,” Gao said.

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  • Hong Kong to post surplus even as economy grapples with China slowdown

    Hong Kong to post surplus even as economy grapples with China slowdown

    Hong Kong is forecast to post a healthy fiscal surplus in its annual budget on Wednesday, with a series of one-off sweeteners expected to help businesses hurt by a slowdown in China, including the hard-hit retail and tourism sectors.

    Hong Kong’s longstanding Financial Secretary John Tsang isn’t expected, however, to unveil any sweeping new initiatives amid concerns the government’s reliance on one-off measures are failing to bolster the city’s economic fundamentals as it enters a period of slower growth and heightened political tensions.

    Tsang wrote on his official blog on Sunday that while sweeteners may only account for 1 percent of Hong Kong’s annual budget, they provide an important boost for the local economy and job market, and play an important “stabilising” role.

    A night-long riot shook the city after the authorities tried to remove illegal street stalls during the Lunar New Year, the worst violence since pro-democracy protests in 2014.

    While Hong Kong has tended to post healthy surpluses over the past decade, pressures are mounting on some of the economy’s biggest drivers. Mainland Chinese tourists who power the territory’s all-important retail sector stayed away from the city last year, leading to the worst annual decline in sales since 2002.

    Hong Kong officials have also sought to integrate more closely with China through Beijing’s “One Belt, One Road” blueprint to deepen regional economic co-operation, though the details remain sketchy.

    Four economists surveyed by Reuters expect fourth quarter growth to slow to a seasonally adjusted 0.1 percent from 0.9 percent in the third. From a year earlier, growth was forecast at 2 percent, down from 2.3 percent in the third quarter.

    Six economists estimated the economy would expand 2.3 percent in 2015, slightly less than the official forecast of 2.4 percent.

    The global financial hub’s economy is highly reliant on China which is grappling with its slowest growth in nearly 25 years.

    The government is forecasting a surplus of HK$36.8 billion while professional services firm Deloitte expects HK$80 billion.

    Despite a recent softening in the city’s sky-high property prices, analysts expect cooling measures implemented over the past few years to stay in place. Standard & Poor’s has forecast a 10 to 15 percent drop in property prices in 2016.

    Hong Kong’s economic pressures come on top of an increasingly fraught political environment, including the disappearances and feared abductions by Chinese agents of several Hong Kong booksellers, and lingering tensions towards Beijing’s refusal to allow full democracy in Hong Kong after protesters occupied major roads for 79 days in late 2014.

    The former British colony, with a population of 7.3 million, returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” framework that gave it a large degree of autonomy although its leaders ultimately defer to Beijing.

  • Will escalating China woes derail CRCT’s growth story?

    Will escalating China woes derail CRCT’s growth story?

    It will benefit from increased consumption.

    CapitaLand Retail China Trust is still poised for growth despite China’s slowing economy, according to a report by DBS.

    Although investors are currently fearful of the slowdown in China’s GDP growth, DBS said that RCT should remain well positioned as it should benefit from China’s move towards a consumption-based economy. This trend is illustrated by the 10.7% jump in retail sales for FY15, faster than the overall GDP growth of 6.9%.

    “Going forward, we understand CRCT remains confident of generating positive rental reversions (in the “single-digit range), although lower than the 15-20% achieved over the past few years,” DBS said.

    The lower level of rental reversion is also due to CRCT making a strategic decision to attract certain tenants as part of its constant tenant remixing to sustain the performance of its malls in the long term, DBS noted.

    “CRCT’s earnings have been negatively impacted by the road closures surrounding Minzhongleyuan over the past two years. As these works are scheduled to be completed by end-2016, we believe we are approaching an inflection point for the mall’s earnings,” the report added.

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  • Indonesia’s growth in 2015 slows for fifth consecutive year

    Indonesia’s growth in 2015 slows for fifth consecutive year

    Growth in South East Asia’s largest economy, Indonesia, has come in at 4.76% for 2015, marking the fifth consecutive yearly decline. Weaker commodity prices and consumer spending, together with a slowdown in its key trading partner, China, has hurt growth. Towards the end of last year, however, the economy expanded by just over 5%, boosted by government spending. President Joko Widodo had promised to lift annual growth to 7% on average.

    However, the country has seen an average of just under 6% growth over the past decade and analysts have said growth is unlikely to improve for some time.

    “The fourth quarter data is a positive surprise,” economist Tony Nash told.

    “But unfortunately the uptick will likely be short lived. We expect deterioration in the first quarter and it’ll be tough to regain growth momentum before 2017,” he added.

    Mr Widodo made his promise to raise growth when his five-year term began in 2014, but he has faced problems boosting government spending and has seen several large infrastructure projects delayed.

    A $5.5bn high-speed railway project, funded by China, was signed last year and is scheduled to be up and running by 2019.

    But the project has faced widespread objections from transport experts and its long-term viability has been questioned.

    Mr Widodo has also faced international condemnation for the country’s man-made forest fires, which have caused serious economic and environmental damage.

    In December, the World Bank said Indonesia’s forest fires last year had likely cost the country more than twice the amount spent on reconstruction efforts after the 2004 Aceh tsunami.

    In its quarterly report, the bank said the fires had cost some 221tn Indonesian rupiah ($15.72bn; £10.5bn).

    It added that regional and global costs would be much higher.

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  • Competition that hit Alibaba down

    Competition that hit Alibaba down

    Alibaba appears to be facing increasingly stiff competition from rival JD.com, which like Alibaba has worked to boost sales from foreign retail companies in China. While Alibaba has talked in recent months of the potential of reaching consumers in rural China, JD.com has focused on reaching the more affluent shoppers in urban areas.

    While it’s true that e-commerce is increasingly important in more remote areas of China, income there remains low, as does spending, and China’s recent economic turmoil is likely slowing down growth.

    In addition to its focus in more rural areas, Alibaba continues to face problems over sales of counterfeit items, more so than JD.com, an issue of increasing important not just to retailers abroad and the U.S. government, but also to wealthier Chinese shoppers.

    And JD.com enjoys a positive, Amazon-like reputation for fulfillment.

    “[JD] have faster shipping speeds, and the quality is more trustworthy,” Zoe Li, who works at a tech start-up in Beijing.

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  • Philippine growth short of target at 5.8 percent in 2015

    Philippine growth short of target at 5.8 percent in 2015

    The Philippine economy grew 5.8 percent in 2015, short of even lowered government expectations after being hampered by a weak world economy, El Nino and slow government spending in the first half of the year.

    The government initially forecast growth of 7-8 percent for 2015 but later lowered its projection to 6-6.5 percent.

    “Though this is lower than what we targeted for the year, this growth is respectable given the difficult external environment,” Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said Thursday.

    The Philippines has been one of the fastest growing economies in Asia for several years. Despite increased government efforts to raise living standards, the country of more than 100 million still faces considerable challenges including its vulnerability to typhoons and other natural disasters, poverty, corruption and poor infrastructure.

    The economy expanded 6.3 percent in the last quarter of the year, the fastest for 2015. It was up from 6.1 percent the previous quarter but down from 6.6 percent in the same period of 2014.

    Balisacan said growth has averaged 6.2 percent in the past six years, which is the best performance since the late 1970s. The growth has not been due to unsustainable borrowings like in the 1970s and short-lived portfolio capital but fueled by investments that create jobs and increase incomes, he said.

    He said last year’s growth was driven by much stronger domestic demand and government spending that grew 9.4 percent compared to the previous year’s 1.7 percent. Growth in public and private investments more than doubled, primarily led by public construction.

    Service industries were also robust, growing 6.7 percent in 2015 from 5.9 percent in 2014. Industry expanded 6.0 percent while agriculture grew a tepid 0.2 percent.

    Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said the Philippines was well-positioned to withstand turbulence in financial markets caused by uncertainty about the strength of the global economy.

    He said foreign exchange reserves are more than healthy at $80.6 billion as of the end of last year, enough to cover 10.3 months of imports and equivalent to more than six times the country’s external short-term funding requirements.

  • Burberry sees return to sales growth in China

    Burberry sees return to sales growth in China

    Luxury fashion group Burberry on Thursday announced a return to retail sales growth in China despite an economic slowdown, boosting overall results in its third quarter.

    The British handbag and clothing company reported overall retail sales of £603 million ($866 million, 794 million euros) in the October through December period, “as (sales in) mainland China returned to growth”, Burberry said in an earnings statement.

    China is in sharp focus for markets amid an overall slowdown for the world’s second largest economy.

    In the three months to the end of 2015, Burberry saw total underlying retail sales growth of 1.0 percent, an improvement on the 4.0-percent decline in its second quarter.

    Burberry’s financial year runs from April to the end of March

    On the downside, sales in Hong Kong fell by more than 20 percent owing to long-standing protests against China.

    All of Burberry’s Hong Kong stores remain profitable however thanks to cost controls, the company said in the statement.

    “The outlook for our sector remains uncertain,” said chief executive Christopher Bailey.

    “However, we are anticipating and responding to these changes through an intense focus on new growth opportunities.”

    Chief financial officer Carol Fairweather told a conference call with reporters that Burberry’s performance in France had been impacted by fewer tourists visiting from China and the Middle East following the Paris terrorist attacks in November.

  • E-commerce market on path of growth

    E-commerce market on path of growth

    Computer and electronics, beauty and cosmetics as well as fashion are potential categories for e-commerce in Thailand. The Thai e-commerce market in 2014 was valued at Bt2.03 trillion, with business-to-business (B2B) deals worth Bt1.23 trillion, business-to-consumer (B2C) valued at Bt0.41 trillion and business-to-government (B2G) valued 0.31 trillion.

    Surangkana Wayuparb, the chief executive officer of Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA), said that the agency has spent seven months conducting the e-commerce survey, covering all industries in Thailand, representing 502,676 people from eight sectors: manufacturing, retail and wholesale, transport, accommodation, information and communication, insurance, art, entertainment and recreation as well as other services.

    B2B e-commerce was valued at Bt1.230 trillion, a contraction of 0.33 per cent over 2014, while B2C was valued at Bt474,648.91 million, a growth of 15.29 per cent over 2014 and B2G was valued at Bt402,883.74 million, growing 3.96 per cent year on year.

    “It is a huge opportunity for e-commerce business in Thailand since the new Thai generation believes in shopping via online channels. The 4G will also be a factor in driving the growth of the e-commerce market in Thailand,” said the CEO.

    The e-commerce market in Thailand was worth Bt2.03 trillion in 2014 of which B2B was worth Bt1.234 trillion or 60.69 per cent, followed by B2C Bt411,715 million or 20.25 per cent and B2G valued Bt387,552 million.

    In 2015, the top three industries expected to generate the most e-commerce are accommodation services, worth Bt658,909.76 million or 38.4 per cent, followed by manufacturing, valued at Bt350,286.83 million or 20.4 per cent, as well as retail and wholesale industry, valued at Bt325,077.48 million or 19 per cent.

    She also said that the top three industries that |gained the highest e-commerce value in 2014 were accommodation services valued at Bt530,159.13 million or 38.1 per cent, followed by manufacturing valued at Bt440,614.78 million, gaining 26.6 per cent, and information and communications valued at Bt264,863.74 million, growing 19.11 per cent.

    Computer and accessories, cosmetics and beauty as well as fashion are the three top categories for online retail and wholesale business.

    Art and entertainment business, games online, music and e-movies are the main categories in the online entertainment business.

    Surangkana said that the global and domestic economies are factors in driving the e-commerce market in Thailand and the government incentives or tax privileges will play a part in driving the e-commerce market of the country as a whole.

    She said that the top four online transactions for e-commerce business in 2014 were e-banking at 54.25 per cent, followed by credit and debit card 22.39 per cent, mobile payment at 14.53 per cent, and others at 8.83 per cent.

    However, mobile payment has high potential for growth because the modern lifestyle will mean using mobiles to pay transaction fees in the near future.

    She said that the total US B2C e-commerce market was valued at US$359.3 billion in 2014. Meanwhile, China’s B2C market was worth $322.1 billion. Japan and Korean were valued at $118.59 billion and $25.4 billion, respectively.

    Thailand and Malaysia had B2C market valued at $11.7 billion and $9.6 billion respectively.

     

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  • Gloss coming off Starbucks Asia growth

    Gloss coming off Starbucks Asia growth

    Global coffee giant Starbucks has finished its financial year on a high, reporting a 17 per cent increase in annual revenue to a record US$19.2 billion.

    But is the Starbucks Asia Pacific business underperforming?

    Neil Saunders, CEO of Conlumino, believes so. He says the company’s last quarter figures were boosted by the acquisition of the balance of its Japan joint venture from partner Sazaby League. Globally it finished the quarter with 1666 more cafes than in the previous year, an impressive figure in itself.

    “For a company of Starbucks size and scale, such results are exceptional and a testament to the company’s innovative attitude, as well as the continued relevance of coffee across many geographies,” says Saunders.

    “While the overall numbers are strong, there is an interesting trend in the detail: namely that although Starbucks performed well across many geographies – including in the more mature core Americas territory – performance in Asia Pacific was surprisingly muted.”

    Saunders says while total revenue held up well, rising 110 over last year, this is mainly because of the Japanese acquisition.

    The opening of 767 new stores in Asia-Pacific (which is essentially Asia given Starbucks has only 25 cafes in Australia and 26 in New Zealand, both run by franchise partners) certainly helped.

    “However, on an underlying basis, same store sales only rose by six per cent – a slightly disappointing outcome, and one that is partly attributable to the general slowdown in China,” says Saunders.

    “If the emerging markets proved to be soft, the same cannot be said of the Americas where comparable sales rose by eight per cent. Here some of the menu changes, including the continued growth of the food offer, have helped to push up average ticket within existing stores. However, in our view the various digital initiatives Starbucks has been developing and pursuing have also paid dividends. Its popular digital app is already widely used for payment, and locks in loyalty both by saving customers time at the register and by making Starbucks a destination by virtue of the fact that the card is preloaded with cash. It is also notable that the average ticket from customers using the mobile app for payment tend to be higher. Naturally, some of this is because Starbucks enthusiasts and most loyal customers are more likely to have the app. However, we also believe that the rewards and advertising, which the app supports, help to stimulate add-on sales.”

    Saunders says Starbucks’ plan to drive evening sales through offering alcoholic beverages and an enhanced food menu in US and UK stores is also encouraging.

    “These improvements should be in a quarter of US stores by the end of 2019. In our view, they’re another example of why Starbucks outperforms: it evolves and innovates its in a way that’s relevant to customers.”

    Next year, Starbucks says it plans to open about 900 new stores in Asia-Pacific, two thirds of them licensed. And it says it expects it earnings in the region to be flat or even down.

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  • CIMB Thai to target less aggressive loan growth

    CIMB Thai to target less aggressive loan growth

    For the past five years, CIMB Thai Bank has accelerated its loan growth, especially in retail banking, to comply with Malaysia-based CIMB Group’s policy.

    This has been achieved via housing loans in the retail – or individual – segment in order to build up the bank’s customer base, he said.

    The strategy has resulted in a housing-loan portfolio of Bt50 billion to Bt60 billion, against less than Bt10 billion five years ago, giving CIMB Thai Bank a total retail-banking portfolio of nearly Bt100 billion.

    During this period, the bank targeted overall annual loan growth of above 20 per cent, but this was only achieved in 2013, when lending expanded by 23.2 per cent.

    Last year’s loan growth came in at 11 per cent, with growth of just 4.7 per cent being achieved in the first nine months of this year, against a target of 15-20 per cent, said the CEO.

    In terms of asset size, CIMB Thai Bank’s Bt300 billion gives it a ranking of eighth out of the 11 listed banks in Thailand.

    “Singapore-based United Overseas Bank (Thai) has an asset size of Bt350 billion, and they are okay with this size, as well. With the current scale of CIMB Thai Bank, we should not be aggressive and we should keep to [loan] growth of 10 per cent per year,” Subhak said

    “We discussed this with the group in Malaysia and they agreed with our way. The economic slowdown of the past two years [in Thailand] has impacted on retail lending, causing the bank to spend much more time than expected on expanding business to retail clients and resulting in our return on equity being lower than the target of 5 to 6 per cent,” he said.

    CIMB Thai Bank reported a return on equity of 9.58 per cent for 2012, followed by 7.18 per cent for 2013 and 4.44 per cent for last year, while net profit came in at Bt1.58 billion, Bt1.49 billion and Bt988.8 million, respectively.

    For the first nine months of this year, the bank posted net earnings of Bt847 million, down 6 per cent from Bt900 million in the same period last year.

    Subhak said he expected full-year net profit to be similar to or a little higher than last year’s level, because even though it had posted the highest third-quarter percentage growth among its peers, the sum needed to be put aside as additional provisioning, especially during the current economic environment.

    CIMB Thai Bank recorded a year-on-year rise of 81 per cent in third-quarter net profit to Bt498 million.

    However, the Thai unit of CIMB Group hopes to achieve a return on equity of 10-12 per cent in the next three years, by focusing on non-interest income from areas such as investment banking, treasury products, bancassurance and mutual funds, Subhak said.

    While non-interest income at present contributes 30-35 per cent of the bank’s income, it will not overtake interest income as the main contributor despite the planned shift to a lower gear for loan growth in the coming years, he said.

    In the next two to three years, non-interest income should reach 40 per cent, he added.

    CIMB Group is strongly committed to its investment in Thailand, as reflected in its approval of the local bank’s capital increase of Bt3.68 billion via the issuance of new shares, he stressed.

    CIMB Thai Bank will increase its registered capital from Bt10.54 billion to Bt13.7 billion by issuing 6.325 billion new shares.

    The subscription period is October 26-30 and, after the additional funds are mobilised, its capital-adequacy ratio will rise to 15 per cent, from the current 13.7 per cent.

    CIMB Group is happy with the bank’s performance because of the quarterly profit contribution of 8-10 per cent that it makes to the group, he said.

    Furthermore, the Thai unit has a substantial role in strengthening cross-border deals for the Malaysian banking group.

    The bank is one of four institutions mandated as lead arrangers for a syndicated term loan of US$1.25 billion (Bt44.25 billion) to Charoen Pokphand Group, with CIMB Labuan – part of CIMB Group’s Malaysian operations – lending $250 million as part of the deal.

    CIMB Thai Bank, meanwhile, is the onshore security agent for a $400-million loan to Maxtop Management Corp, a TCC Group company.

    CIMB Labuan is the lender and arranger and offshore security agent, while CIMB SG – CIMB Group’s Singaporean arm – provides the bank account for the deal.

  • Singapore economy grows by 1.8% in Q2

    Singapore economy grows by 1.8% in Q2

    Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) announced on Tuesday that the Singapore economy grew by 1.8 per cent on a year-on-year basis in the second quarter, slower than the 2.8 per cent growth in the previous quarter.

    On a quarter-on-quarter seasonally-adjusted annualised basis, the economy contracted by 4.0 per cent, a reversal from the 4.1 per cent growth in the preceding quarter.

    The manufacturing sector contracted by 4.9 per cent year-on-year, extending the 2.4 per cent decline in the previous quarter. The sector was primarily weighed down by declines in the output of the biomedical manufacturing and transport engineering clusters.

    The construction sector expanded at a faster pace of 2.5 per cent year-on-year, supported by a pick-up in public sector construction works, compared to the 1.1 per cent in the previous quarter.

    The wholesale & retail trade sector grew by 5.0 per cent year-on-year, slightly slower than the 5.3 per cent expansion in the previous quarter. Growth was driven by both the wholesale trade and retail trade segments, with the latter being supported in turn by robust motor vehicle sales.

    The accommodation & food services sector contracted at a faster pace of 0.6 per cent year-on-year compared to the 0.1 per cent decline in the previous quarter. The slowdown in the sector was largely due to sluggish performance in the food & beverage segment.

    The finance & insurance sector posted growth of 7.1 per cent year-on-year, extending the 7.8 per cent growth in the previous quarter. Growth was largely underpinned by the fund management segment.

    The information & communications sector grew by 4.5 per cent year-on-year, moderating from the 4.9 per cent growth in the previous quarter. Growth was mainly driven by the IT & information services segment.

  • Huawei hails SE Asia success

    Huawei hails SE Asia success

    Smartphone maker Huawei says its determination to concentrate on Southeast Asia is already bearing fruit.

    With the profitable Southeast Asia regional launch of the Huawei P8 and wearable units in Bangkok Thailand in late Might, Huawei is retaining the momentum going by introducing the P8, P8Max, P8Lite, Talkband B2 and AP007 energy financial institution to Myanmar, Laos, and Cambodia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and different Southeast Asia nations and areas.

    The corporate says it set a brand new gross sales document in Myanmar when it launched the P8 handset there on June 6.

    After two weeks of pre-orders of Huawei’s newest flagship merchandise, the primary batch of P8s turned obtainable in 28 outlets throughout Myanmar – all of them bought out by 10am.

    “The regional gross sales supervisor from one among telephone store famous that the P8 has set a brand new gross sales document and has turn into the best-selling handset of their store’s historical past and that they have been amazed by the variety of preorders,” stated Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei Shopper BG.

    says Southeast Asia is now one of many key markets for Huawei, and the corporate is optimistic concerning the potential within the area.

    “Southeast Asia is likely one of the most promising and high-potential financial entities on the earth, each now and sooner or later. It’s considered a strategic market and an engine driving the quick progress of Huawei’s Shopper Enterprise,” Yu stated.

    “In 2014, Huawei noticed over 10 million complete shipments on this area. With the launch of the P8, P8Max and P8Lite this yr, we anticipate complete shipments to succeed in eight million models, a 167 per cent improve.”

    The corporate has seen substantial progress in regional shipments within the area. Thomas Liu, president of Huawei Shopper Enterprise Group Southeast Asia, stated within the first quarter of 2015, smartphone shipments in Southeast Asia rose 120 per cent over final yr.

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  • Malaysian attire retail gross sales strong

    Malaysian attire retail gross sales strong

    The Malaysian attire retail business has posted compound annual progress price of 9.9 per cent between 2010 and 2014.

    In accordance with a brand new report the sector achieved complete revenues of US$1.eight billion in 2014.

    However one of the best is but to return. The efficiency of the business is forecast to speed up, with an anticipated CAGR of 10.three per cent for the 5 years from 2014 to 2019, which is predicted to drive the business to a worth of $2.9 billion by the top of 2019.

    Not surprisingly, the womenswear phase led the best way with complete 2014 revenues of $800 million, equal to 47.5 per cent of the business’s general worth, based on the report.

     

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