AIS expects pick-up in second half

AIS vice president for marketing analysis and planning Pornrat Janejarassakul said the company would work harder to grow revenue, which is forecast to improve in the second half when the economy is expected to pick up.

AIS service revenue, excluding interconnection revenue, in the first quarter was Bt20.54 billion, falling 4.1 per cent year on year, due to weaker usage on voice calls. Net profit fell to Bt4.57 billion from Bt5.12 billion a year earlier.

A telecom analyst says that as the second quarter is usually a low season for mobile-phone usage due to several holidays, the AIS second-quarter results were likely to soften on a quarterly basis.

He added that AIS's financial result in the first quarter was "decent". After stripping out a Bt21-million gain from the exchange rate, the pre-exceptional profit in the first quarter was Bt4.553 billion, declining 12.7 per cent year on year but up 15.4 per cent quarter on quarter.

AIS also had a significant cost control. It cut the marketing budget from Bt642 million in the first quarter of last year to Bt549 million in the first quarter this year. It spent Bt3.1 billion on capital expenses in the quarter, declining from Bt3.7 billion spent in the fourth quarter last year.