Pantavanij Co, Thailand's first and largest e-procurement company, has set its sights on being one of the top five players over the next three years particularly through partnerships in the region. ''The world's electronic procurement market is consolidating,'' said Tri Kanchanadul, chief executive officer of Pantavanij Co. ''We expect the number of e-procurement players to fall to about five over the next three years due to mergers and acquisitions from 20 now.''
''We want to be a dominant player in China and in all the Asian markets,'' said Mr Tri. ''And to pave a way for that goal, we have already talked with some players in the Philippines and South Korea, with a final conclusion on the plan likely within the year.''
Pantavanij was founded in 2001 by some of the country's largest firms, including the Charoen Pokphand Group, Bangkok Bank Plc, Siam Commercial Bank Plc, Siam Cement Group Plc, True Corporation Plc, and United Communication Industry.
The company offers three main business lines _ e-marketplace (outsourcing, online purchasing, volume aggregation, and system integration), e-government (online auction for the government and state enterprises) and consulting.
The CP Group is the major shareholder of Pantavanij, holding roughly a 90% stake in Pantavanij, with the rest owned by Bangkok Bank Plc.
Pantavanij managed 47.9 billion baht worth of transactions last year on behalf of state agencies and private firms, with the figure expected to top 58 billion baht at the end of this year.
Out of last year's transaction value of 47.9 billion baht in 2005, 35.22 billion baht was from online purchases with 12.68 billion baht from online auctions.
Transaction values for online purchases were expected to rise to 40 billion baht this year, and auctions to 18 billion baht.
As of March this year, Pantavanij maintains a supplier database of 12,300 vendors and 213,000 distinct SKUs (stock-keeping units).
From its inception to the end of March this year, the company has conducted a total of 6,368 auctions for state enterprises and private firms, of which 3,858 auctions were for the state and state enterprises.
Through its five-year operation, the company claims to have helped save 3.12 billion baht in costs for the state and state enterprises and 1.99 billion baht for private firms, in addition to intangible benefits such as more streamlined workflows, improved compliance and inventory management and up-to-date procurement information for management.
Service-based revenue last year totalled 147 million baht compared with 92 million baht in 2004, 28 million baht in 2003, and 0.3 million baht in 2002.
The company posted an operating profit of 25 million baht in 2005 and seven million baht in 2004.
Revenue was expected to increase to 200 million baht this year with profit of 42 million baht.
''The business potential is still enormous compared to the potential volume of domestic procurement worth over 500 billion baht a year '' said Mr Tri. ''The transactions we have managed represent just 12% of the estimated domestic procurement, far below the online auctions now managed in developed countries.''
Autor/Author: Charoen Kittikanya
Quelle/Source: Bangkok Post, 04.05.2006
