Big shin q3 gain

By Telecom Reporters
The Nation
Published on November 13, 2008

Shin Corp yesterday posted a consolidated net profit of more than Bt1.5 billion for the third quarter, virtually doubling last year's Bt753.71 million.

The contribution from the flagship Advanced Info Service (AIS) unit increased by 16.63 per cent to more than Bt1.7 billion, due mainly to an increase in rev¬enue.

Shin's main businesses range from cellular through to satellite services.

Shin experienced no loss from personalloan provider Capital OK in the quarter because its investment in the company was divested last December. In the third quarter last year, Shin recorded a Bt1.878billion loss from this business.

AIS posted an overall 2008 thirdquarter net profit of Bt4.53 billion, up 29.1 per cent over the same period last year. However, AIS cautioned that due to the political situation, its quarteronquarter revenue growth this quarter might be softer than what is normal dur¬ing the high season.

Shin owns 42.67 per cent of AIS, while Singapore Telecom has 19.18 per cent.

Cedar Holdings and Aspen Holdings, which are associated with Singapore's state invest¬ment arm Temasek Holdings, own 54.43 per cent and 41.68 per cent respectively of Shin.

A telecom analyst expects only a slight drop in the coun¬try's cellular operators' revenue next year, given that the mobilephone service has become indis¬pensable.

The analyst projects that this year's industrywide mobilephone service revenue will grow 5.8 per cent to Bt165.581 billion, with 3.4percent growth next year to more than Bt171 billion. Annual growth is projected to rise to 4.9 per cent in 2010.However, the analyst cut his forecast of the 2009 preexceptional profit of major cellular operators in line with the sluggish economy.The analyst cut his forecast of AIS preexceptional profit next year to Bt19.276 billion, down by 6.2 per cent from his previous estimated of Bt20.548 billion.

He also revised downward his preexceptional profit estimate of Total Access Communication Plc for this year to Bt8.318 billion, down 2.9 per cent from the previously estimated Bt8.564 billion. The estimate of the normalised profit in 2009 is also cut by 16.4 per cent to Bt7.418 billion from Bt8.872 billion.

The analyst's earnings revision of True Move is the steepest among the three cellular operators as its performance in the first half of this year was much weaker than expected. The analyst revised downward the company's preexceptional profit this year to Bt564 million from Bt672 million and next year to Bt1.463 billion from Bt3.079 billion.

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Big shin q3 gain

Shin Corp yesterday posted a consolidated net profit of more than Bt1.5 billion for the third quarter, virtually doubling last year's Bt753.71 million.

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