Thai telco AIS expects weak gains

The Straits Times, February 6, 2007


BANGKOK - ADVANCED Info Service (AIS), Thailand's top mobile phone operator, said yesterday that its profits for last year would be weak due to fierce competition and political instability.

But the telco said it would be in line with analysts' forecasts.

'We didn't do so well in the first three quarters of last year and we didn't recover quickly in the last quarter,' president Wichian Mektrakarn told Reuters.

Net profits this year were expected to be 'not different' from a year earlier, while service revenues, which account for more than 90 per cent of the group's total, should rise by 5 to 8 per cent.

He declined to give specific earnings forecasts. Reuters Estimates forecast a net profit of 16.7 billion baht (S$714.8 million) for last year, down 12 per cent from 2005. The forecast expects a 10 per cent rise in net profit for this year.

The 2007 forecasts did not take into account any possible revenues from interconnection charges, the fees a caller's network pays for a call to another network.

The new interconnection fee structure is due to come into force this month, although Mr Wichian said he feared that legal wrangling between state-owned telecoms provider TOT and AIS' main rivals could delay its introduction, he said.