Nonthaburi, 13 November, 2012. THAICOM PLC., today announced its operating results for Q3 2012, posting a net operating profit of 147 million Baht on normalized operations, the fifth consecutive profitable quarter. The Company's stand-alone performance improved significantly in the third quarter, posting a net operating profit of 479 million Baht, an improvement of 422% over the previous quarter, pushing up total stand-alone net operating profit to 609 million Baht for the first nine months of the year.
On the same day, the Company also announced that it had received approval from its Board of Directors for Shenington Investments Pte., Ltd., to enter into a share purchase agreement with a local investor, INT Management Service Corporation Limited, for Cambodian mobile operator Mfone. The agreement includes certain conditions which must be met by both sides within 60 days. In light of this SPA, Thaicom has included a provision of 252 million Baht in its consolidated financial statements for this quarter.
"The agreement is now signed, and we are certain that the conditions in the agreement will be met before the end of the year. The 252 MB provision should be the last, and we don't expect any other significant financial items beyond this 3rd quarter," Suphajee Suthumpun, Chairman of the Executive Committee and CEO stated. "The completion of this deal means that next year, we will not be hit with an average quarterly loss of 130 million Baht from Mfone, and the
provision will not impact our stand-alone performance."
The Company's satellite operations contributed 83% of its overall revenues in the third quarter, with strong overseas performance leading to exceptional growth in stand-alone profits. The Company also recognized additional IPSTAR utilization revenues from a fourth Japanese telecom operator in the third quarter, and in a recent report issued by Northern Sky Research (NSR), IPSTAR was ranked number 1 in the world in terms of High Through-put Satellite (HTS) market share.
"The contributions coming from our satellite services, including the first dividend payment from our overseas operations, have strengthened our overall position and our ability to pay a potential dividend to shareholders," Suphajee noted.
"We expect this growth trend to continue with the launch of Thaicom 6 next year, as we have already exceeded our pre-launch booking target of 30%, way ahead of plan. Thaicom 6 will help us to further solidify our 'hotbird' position at 78.5 degrees East and give us the opportunity to
enter the African market, where we see very high potential. Moreover, today we officially launched our Thaicom 6 marketing campaign in Africa, where we will market the satellite capacity as Africom-1," Suphajee explained.
In other areas of the Company's operations, Thaicom's subsidiary CSLoxinfo PLC., announced continued solid results for the quarter and the sale of the non-core Watta Classifieds Co., Ltd. The consolidation of the Company's business structure will strengthen its operations as it turns its focus more on IT and internet-related activities.
Thaicom's telephone subsidiary in the Lao PDR, Lao Telecom, became the second operator in ASEAN to offer 4G services when it launched initial service to support the government during the ASEM meeting held earlier in November. Over the next few months LTC will start to roll- out 4G service in major population centers around the country.
THAICOM PLC., founded on November 7, 1991, is a satellite and telecommunications operator with customers throughout Asia, Africa, Europe and Australia. Currently, the Company operates two THAICOM satellites at geostationary orbit. THAICOM 5 carries more than 450 television channels at its
'hotbird' location of 78.5 degrees East while THAICOM 4 (IPSTAR) can deliver broadband services to
millions of users across 14 countries in Asia Pacific. THAICOM 6 is presently under construction and planned for launch in 2013 to serve the increasing demand for broadcast services. THAICOM 7 is planned for launch in 2014 to 120 degrees East. THAICOM is listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) under the trade symbol "THCOM".
PR CONTACT: Sujittra YingpoemmongkolThaicom Public Company Limited. 41/103 Rattanathibet Road, Nonthaburi, 11000, Thailand
Phone: +66 (0) 2596-5060 Ext. 8493
E-mail: sujittray@thaicom.net; Website:www.thaicom.net, www.ipstar.com
For more information, please visit the company's website www.thaicom.net and www.ipstar.com .
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