THAICOM declares a net profit for the quarter of 16M Baht, a 105% improvement year-on-year

11 November, 2011

THAICOM Public Company Limited released its third quarter operating results, declaring a net quarterly profit of 16 million Baht. The company’s satellite operations have continued to improve steadily, posting a profit for a second consecutive quarter, and were the major factor in pushing the company’s consolidated revenue to 1.968 billion Baht for the quarter, an increase of 21.6% on the same quarter from the previous year.

For the first nine months of the year, the company recorded 5.4 billion Baht in consolidated revenue from sales of goods and rendering of services, an increase of 7% over the same period last year. Comparatively, the company’s operating profits (EBIT) for the first nine months of 2011 moved into positive territory, at 98 million Baht, compared to a loss of (-469) million Baht recorded for the first nine months of 2010.

“Our satellite business has continued to improve, and the performance recorded by both IPSTAR and our conventional satellite, THAICOM 5, shows that our core business remains strong,” said Suphajee Suthumpun, THAICOM’s Chief Executive Officer. “Demand for satellite services, particularly from broadcasters, remains strong as can be seen from the increase in television channels currently on THAICOM 5. Over the past year we have added nearly 100 channels to our satellite. The ‘Hotbird’ status of THAICOM 5 is also translating into demand for THAICOM 6, and already we have signed a transponder reservation agreement valued at over 1 billion Baht for THAICOM 6 with PSI Holding Company Limited.”

Revenues from the company’s satellite and related services stood at 1.562 billion Baht for the third quarter of 2011, an increase of 46.3% year-on-year. The company’s conventional satellite, THAICOM 5, contributed 603 million Baht to the overall figure, while IPSTAR services earned 734 million Baht, and IPSTAR sales 225 million Baht.

“THAICOM 5 saw revenue growth from both transponder leasing to broadcasters, as well as value-added services such as tape playout and digital signal compression. IPSTAR’s increased revenues came from higher bandwidth demands from several of our clients in Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Malaysia, New Zealand and Australia,” Suphajee explained. “The company also collected a Gateway Access Fee from NBN Company Limited in advance of commencement of IPSTAR broadband services being provided to Australia through the NBN project.”

The other areas of the company’s operations, namely telephone services and internet access and media services, also saw slight improvements on a quarterly basis, although when compared to the same period of the previous year, performance has dropped. Compared to the same quarter in 2010, revenue from telephone services was down by 44 million Baht at 277 million Baht, while internet access and media services saw a drop of 100 million Baht to 129 million Baht for the third quarter, 2011.

“Competition in the mobile market in Cambodia is strong, with 9 players vying for a relatively small population. The price war has meant that many operators are now offering services to customers at below-cost,” Suphajee noted. “In the Lao PDR, however, a regulation implemented by the government has returned stability to the market, and the positive results of that regulation are already partially reflected in better performance for LTC.”

“As for DTV’s performance, although the number of satellite dishes sold this quarter has been lower, the cumulative number of satellite dishes sold by DTV over the past 12 months has grown significantly, nearly 300,000 units. The dishes sold by DTV, as well as those of our partners, means that the total number of eye-balls on THAICOM is more than 1.29 million,” Suphajee commented. “DTV still remains an integral part of our overall strategy to grow demand for space on our conventional satellites.”