Thailand’s Thaicom satellite operator saw revenues tumble 26 per cent during Q1 this year, but helped by foreign exchange benefits ended the quarter in profit.

Thaicom’s net profit for Q1/2020 was Baht 198 million (€5.6 million), a significant improvement as compared to the net loss of Baht 33 million for Q1/2019 and Baht 1,969 million for Q4/2019. The net profit for Q1/2020 partially increased due to extra items including the gain from foreign exchange of Baht 238 million.

Thaicom reported revenue from sales and services for Q1/2020 of Baht 965 million, down 26 percent from Q1/2019, mainly due to the decrease of revenue from broadband customers churned during 2019, also from the Thaicom 5 satellite deorbit. Compared with Q4/2019, the revenue increased by 0.9 per cent, mainly contributed by the increase of revenue from broadband service.

Thaicom 5 was deorbited during the period because of an anomaly on the satellite, and the utilisation rate of the Company’s remaining conventional satellites Thaicom 6, Thaicom 7 and Thaicom 8 was adjusted from a total capacity of 111 transponders to 71 transponders as at the end of 2019. The committed utilisation for the conventional satellites was 65 per cent as at the end of Q1/2020. For broadband business, the utilisation rate of the Thaicom 4 satellite was 21 per cent, down from 23 per cent as at the end of 2019, mainly due to the decrease of bandwidth demand from international customers.

Thaicom, because of the Coronavirus, has postponed its Annual General Meeting until after May 29th (originally scheduled for March 27th).

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