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Published on February 27, 2008

The company's board yesterday approved a dividend payment of Bt1.55 per share, totalling Bt4.96 billion. Of the total, Bt0.30 per share, totalling Bt960 million, is the dividend for January 1 to December 31, 2007. The remaining Bt1.25 per share, totalling Bt4 billion, is the interim dividend for January 1 to April 10, 2008, to be paid by its flagship Advanced Info Service (AIS).

But the interim dividend is subject to approval by AIS shareholders on April 10, according to a Shin filing to the Stock Exchange of Thailand yesterday. Shin owns 42.7 per cent of AIS.

The Shin register book to determine the right of shareholders to receive dividends will be closed on April 29 and the date of distribution will be May 12.

In 2006, Shin paid a higher dividend of Bt2.3 per share to Cedar Holdings and Aspen Holdings, which own 54.51 per cent and 41.75 per cent, respectively, in Shin. Cedar and Aspen are the companies linked with the Singapore state investment arm Temasek Holdings.

Shin's existing core businesses include AIS and the satellite operator Shin Satellite.

Last year Shin recorded a loss from sales of investment in the consumer finance firm Capital OK in the amount of Bt1.378 billion but gained from sales of investment in Asia Aviation, a holding company of Thai Airasia, in the amount of Bt407 million. The share of the net contribution from AIS dropped slightly by 0.9 per cent to Bt6.893 billion.

Its media business showed a loss of Bt2.45 billion, mainly due to losses from the impairment of iTV's concession asset of Bt1.962 billion.

The operation ceased as the concession agreement was revoked on March 7, 2007.

However, a telecom analyst said Shin's situation was expected to improve this year in line with a forecast of stronger business growth for AIS.

Kim Eng Securities forecast that Shin will post a net profit of Bt6.8 billion this year, given that it fully booked the asset impairment loss of iTV last year and has already sold Capital OK.

AIS is expected to post net-profit growth of 7 per cent this year to Bt17.5 billion, due to the growth of its provincial market and data service revenue and the decline of the bad debt of the mobile-phone service.

Shin's share price closed at Bt29.50 yesterday. down from Bt29.75.

Shin is in the process of increasing its shares on the stock market to 15 per cent to meet the SET requirement, up from the existing 3.7 per cent.

Sirivish Toomgum

The Nation