Published on May 13, 2005

Mobile phone giant Advanced Info Service (AIS) yesterday defied analysts’ expectations to post a 6.8 per cent year-on-year rise in first-quarter net profits, thanks to lower interest expenses and tax payment.

The company posted a consolidated, unaudited net profit of Bt5.37 billion, or Bt1.82 a share, for the quarter to March 31, compared with Bt5.03 billion, or Bt1.71 a share, in the same period last year.

Five analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had expected that AIS’s bottom line for the period, on average, would fall about 1 per cent to Bt4.95 billion.

The company’s total revenue stood at Bt23.72 billion, slightly lower than the Bt24.08 billion in the first quarter last year. It attributed the decline to a 22-per-cent fall in revenue from handset and accessory sales, but this was partly offset by a 1.7-per-cent increase in mobile services.

Its total costs remained almost flat year-on-year at Bt12.99 billion, compared with Bt12.96 billion in the same period last year. As a result, operating profit fell slightly to Bt8.52 billion from Bt8.66 billion a year ago.

However, a Bt176.6-million decline in interest burden and a Bt300-million drop in tax payments helped bolster AIS’s bottom line.

As of the end of March, the company had 15.52 million subscribers, 13.35 million of which are prepaid customers while the rest are post-paid.

AIS’s share price closed at Bt98 yesterday, unchanged from the previous day.

Major handset distributor M Link Asia posted consolidated revenue of Bt2.02 billion and net profits of Bt73.47 million, up 23 per cent and 42 per cent, respectively, on the fourth quarter of last year.

The revenue and net profit figures were up 48 and 55 per cent, respectively, on the same period last year.

The company sold 267,709 handsets in the first quarter of this year, up 24 per cent on the previous quarter.

M Link was co-founded by Yaowapa Wongsavat and Monthatip Kovitcharoen-kul, the younger sisters of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

The company’s share price closed at Bt3.24 yesterday, up from Bt3.16.

The Nation, Dow Jones Newswires

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