Bangkok--7 Aug--Thaicom
Thaicom Public Company Limited (THCOM), a leading Asian satellite operator, today announced its operating results for the second quarter of 2017. The company reported a consolidated net profit of Baht 216 million for Q2/2017, a decrease of Baht 375 million or 63.5% from Baht 591 million for Q2/2016, mainly due to the decrease of the Thaicom 4 Broadband service revenue in Australia and Thailand, and increased cost relating to the Thaicom 8 Satellite such as depreciation and in-orbit insurance.
Paiboon Panuwattanawong, CEO of Thaicom, said "The Company's operating performance has declined compared to the Q2/2016 (YoY), mainly due to a slowing global economy. However, Thaicom has planned for such circumstances by turning to overseas markets such as expand retail broadband services in Australia & New Zealand, pursue bulk bandwidth sales on THAICOM 4, secure significant African telecom prospects on THAICOM 6 Africa beam, accelerate THAICOM 8 bandwidth sales to DTH operators in GMS and South Asia. Moreover, in the past quarter, Thaicom succeeded and is trusted by Axiata Business Services Sdn Bhd ("Axiata Business Services")for using satellite capacity on Thaicom 4 satellite to provide broadband satellite and teleport services in Indonesia.With this success, Thaicom is committed to keep on working with other leading mobile network operators throughout Asia-Pacific to provide the satellite communication to help reducing communication limitations in places that are not connected to terrestrial networks and to facilitate the growth of telecommunications industry in the region."
In other areas of the Company's operations, its internet and media subsidiary, CS LoxInfo Public Company Limited (CSL) continued to see declines in revenue from its Media and Advertising on Yellow Pages business due to consumer behavior and technological changes, CSL decided to change the strategy to focus and develop on media and advertising via online platform. In addition, CSL has continued to transfer the existing print customers to the online platform. Meanwhile, its Internet Data Center (IDC) services continued in growth trend with increasing number of subscribers as at the end of Q2/2017 of 3.7% compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Furthermore, the number of subscribers of Condominium Broadband as at the end of Q2/2017 was growing to 15,752 subscribers, increased by 88.2% from Q2/2016. Lao Telecommunications Company Limited (LTC), the Company's telephone operation in the Lao PDR, As of the end of Q2/2017, had total phone subscribers of 2,048,300 increased from 2,045,167 as at the end of Q2/2016, and ranks No.1 with 55.7% mobile's market share, up from 53.7% as at the end Q2/2016. The data revenue especially from Internet SIM has also continued to increase.