Thaicom Public Company Limited (THCOM), one of Asia's leading satellite operators, today announced its operating results for the first quarter of 2016. The company reported a consolidated net profit of 700 million baht, up 160 million baht, or 29.6%, from 540 million baht in Q1/2015. Revenue growth came mainly from sales of goods and rendering of services in the satellite business and the Internet and media businesses. Excluding extraordinary items, such as gains from foreign exchange, the company posted normalized profits of 617 million baht.
Paiboon Panuwattanawong, CEO of Thaicom, said "The Company has seen growth in net profit during the first quarter. The successful creation of new partnerships abroad has increased usage of our network capacity. Recently, we signed a long-term contract with Forever Group, Myanmar's leading media company and Direct-to-Home operator, and also signed a multi-year global distribution agreement with Somaliland National Television (SLNTV). We aim to provide satellite platform services with sufficient capacity and coverage to reach viewers in the Company's 'hotbird' position to fuel the fast growth in broadcast and media industries."
"As for our broadband platform, we continue to clearly target certain markets, focusing on providing telco backhaul for private businesses, network services for the government, and mobility services. We have been able to increase sales of broadband equipment to mobile network operators, especially in other countries, such as Japan. We have also been entrusted with a one-year contract extension from a mobile network operator in Myanmar, which has helped to support our first-quarter performance this year." Mr. Panuwattanawong added.
Thaicom's Internet and media services subsidiary, CS LoxInfo Public Company Limited (CSL), continues to maintain growth in the subscriber base for its ICT business and ADSL for Condominium service, with a 388.8% increase in the number of subscribers since Q1 2015. Sales of satellite receiver sets in Cambodia by Cambodian DTV Network Limited (CDN) continue to grow due to increased demand for broadcast services in HD and an increase in the number of Cambodian-language channels. In Lao PDR, Lao Telecommunications Company Limited (LTC) had total phone subscribers of 1,951,958, increased from 1,769,834 as at the end of Q1/2015, and ranks No.1 with 52.3% mobile's market share, up from 47.5% as at the end Q1/2015. The revenue also continued to increase especially data business from both mobile and fixed broadband and also Internet SIM.