In a statement submitted to the Stock Exchange of Thailand, NMG said the extra items comprised: allowances totalling Bt68.24 million for doubtful debt on trade accounts receivable with related companies, write-offs for accounts receivable and accrued income; an allowance of Bt9.43 million for obsolete stock; an allowance of Bt9.64 million for impairment of assets; and Bt59.03 million in compensation for early retirement.

With these extra items, the company's 2006 net loss after extraordinary items was Bt154.22 million. In 2005, there was a net loss before allowances and extraordinary items of Bt252.45 million.

The company said sales and services revenue for 2006 had increased by 1 per cent from the previous year. This was due to the 16-per-cent growth of circulation revenue, comprising an 11-per-cent increase from newspapers, a 22-per-cent rise from pocket books, cartoon books and magazines, and a 9-per-cent increase from printing services and international magazines.

On the other hand, advertising revenue from publishing dropped 8 per cent, while advertising revenue from broadcasting increased by 15 per cent. Business expansion in logistics with external customers resulted in this revenue segment growing by 50 per cent.

The cost of sales decreased by 7 per cent. This resulted from an 8-per-cent drop in printing costs, while maximising efficiency in production resulted in an 11-per-cent drop in paper consumption even though the cost of paper increased by 7 per cent from 2005. Television production costs decreased by 50 per cent as a result of programme and air-time restructuring.