The Bt4.6-billion figure was the highest ever profit recorded by the group and up 6.7 per cent from 2005.

Last year was the fifth straight year that the group posted a substantial increase in profits.

CEO Peter Termote said that major increases in profitability through productivity improvement and cost reductions had likely reached a ceiling.

Over the next two to three years Glow would see its interest charges increasing from funding projects under construction. Going forward, the marginal benefit of the operational excellence programme would become more limited and the focus would be more on profitable growth.

"The IPP [independent power purchase scheme] offers good growth potential with the request for proposals expected to be issued in April," he said.

For the co-generation business, the company has a 115-megawatt expansion of its existing facilities under construction, with completion targeted for the end of 2009. Most of the capacity of this plant is contracted out already.

"We are also in discussion with a few more customers and, hopefully, we will be able to give more details over the next couple of months. It is however possible that some of the major planned investments in the petrochemical sector will move to China or Vietnam due to the recent announcements related to Map Ta Phut. This could limit our growth potential," Termote said.

The company's board has declared a final dividend of Bt0.975 per share. Together with the interim dividend of Bt0.60 per share, the total dividend for last year comes to Bt1.575.