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Published on December 8, 2007

If approved, the merged entity could be registered a day later, and trading on the stock exchange would begin on January 2, PTT president Prasert Bunsumpun said yesterday.

PTT owns sizeable stakes in both companies.

Pump prices may fall

Energy giant PTT is likely to cut its retail oil prices early next week if the price of finished oil products in Singapore falls.

PTT president Prasert Bunsumpun yesterday said finished oil products would remain above US$100 (Bt3,400) per barrel, while crude-oil prices would be in the range of $80 to $90 a barrel after the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries resolved to maintain output.

He said the prices should remain about that level next year but could move up and down in line with geopolitical conditions.

"Oil prices will also remain high due to the 2-per-cent growth in oil demand next year. Everyone must reduce their energy consumption," he added.

Early boost from Jtepa

Thai companies' export volume under the Japan-Thai Economic Partnership Agreement topped US$323 million (Bt10.92 billion) in the first month after the agreement took effect. One company also imported 860 tonnes of steel worth $500,000.

Apiradee Tantraporn, director-general of the Foreign Trade Department, yesterday said most of the exports involved processed shrimp, textiles and processed tapioca starch.

Sufficiency economy

True, Theptharin Hospital and Kasikornbank have been selected as three of five listed companies for a study on sufficiency-economy leadership practices. The other two will represent the construction-material and life-insurance industries.

The study will be conducted by Mahidol University, with financing from the Thailand Research Fund.

Suksan Kantabut, chief of the university's leadership research group, said the study was aimed at determining whether successful corporations' practices were in line with the sufficiency-economy philosophy and how their practices differed from it.

 The Nation