• 
• 
• 

The company expects to raise more than Bt100 million from the IPO.

Some of the funds will be invested in three areas - hardware and software, increased production capacity and newbusiness establishment - with the remainder reserved for working capital.

CyberPlanet's main business covers consolegame development and an "edutainment" (education/entertainment) school business under the name Genius Planet.

Managing director Chanin Wanijwongse yesterday said the company had shifted focus from developing strategy PC games for online players and games for mobile devices to console games, with the latter now generating 7080 per cent of its revenue.

The products are sold abroad, mainly to Europe and the United States.

The company plans to invest in new consolegame development for another two platforms: Microsoft's Xbox and Sony's PSP and PS3. It currently develops console games to serve only the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii platforms.

"We will invest in game development on the other platforms, which will give us greater product lines across all consolegame platforms. And we will improve our games' quality to become premium products. This will give us much more room to grow in the global market," said Chanin.

"Currently, we're just a small company in the world market, but we have giant game publishers such as Active Vision, iDos, and PHQ as our partners and we will increase the number of global publisher partners."

He added that the size for the consolegame market, mainly in Europe and the US, was between Bt400 billion and Bt600 billion.

CyberPlanet claims to be the only Thai game developer that has gained significant revenue from overseas business.

The company invested Bt30 million in a game studio, which supports the development process from design, research and development, programming and graphics, through to sound editing.

"We are game developers, not retailers. We have our own intellectual property. We believe that in the future some of our products will each be able to sell a million licences," said Chanin.

The company generates 20 to 30 per cent of its revenue from its new Genius Planet business, which is operated by its Informatics Plus subsidiary.

From the first branch established four months ago, the company expects to have 100 schools by the end of next year. Forty will be invested in and operated by the company, the rest through franchisees.

Through Genius Planet schools, children are taught via games. Target customers are students in grades 1 to 6. English is currently taught this way but the range will be expanded to cover other subjects, including mathematics.

CyberPlanet's revenue last year was Bt90 million while its net profit was more than Bt10 million. Doubledigit growth is expected next year.

The company's major shareholders are One Asset Management, Asia Equity Venture and the management team.

(This story is already published in The Nation -printed version- on November 20 Page A3.)