The company yesterday informed the Stock Exchange of Thailand it had appointed Kittiwat Manosuthi as CEO and managing director after Paisal Sricharatchanya resigned as chairman and CEO and Kriangsak Rungthanakiat resigned as director and managing director.

Along with Kittiwat, Nopparat Nitiwarangkul and Chakkapong na Bangchang were appointed as independent directors.

The resignation of Paisal took place after Kriangsak, who was a major RK shareholder, sold 25,600,000 shares, accounting for 19.65 per cent of the company's stock, to Soontorn Meesuwan on October 3.

After that sale, the Rungthanakiat group, which consists of Kriangsak Rungthanakiat, Kitisak Rungthanakiat and Sirikarn Auythanasiri, collectively hold 18,743,607 shares or 14.39 per cent of RK.

Kittiwat declined to speak publicly yesterday on what policies he would pursue at RK, saying he wanted to hear the opinions of the board of directors first.

"However, we need an appropriate policy for recovering our business from the ongoing loss. We must adapt a lot in the deteriorated radio business," he said.

According to SET data, RK's performance in the second quarter of this year showed a net loss of Bt29.39 million, a 120-per-cent increase on the Bt13.37 million net loss recorded in the same period last year.

The company's performance worsened due to lower revenues, which resulted from tough competition amid the large number of community radio stations and the stagnancy of advertising spending in the present economic slowdown.

Although Kittiwat has yet to announce what direction he will take, ex-director Kriangsak said in August he was going to adjust RK's marketing strategy to increase sales revenues while downsizing the company, to save on operating expenses and reduce costs, particularly radio air-time rental.

As of June 30, RK had total assets of Bt159.69 million with paid-up capital of Bt130.26 million. Its revenue in the first half of this year was Bt99.25 million, compared with Bt273.85 million for the whole of last year. This represented a net loss of Bt57.63 million in the first six months of this year, compared with a net loss of Bt53.24 million recorded for the whole of last year.