Thaicom is suffering with revenue down 22.4 per cent for last year to THB 4,663 million (€136m) which it blamed on a decrease of revenues from satellite and related services due to customer churn.

That churn, it says, mostly occurred in the first-half of 2019 and has since stabilized and been helped by new customers taking up services.

The Company’s net loss for 2019, excluding extra items recognized during the year, i.e., the loss from satellite impairment, the sale of investment and foreign exchange, was THB 432 million, while the total net loss reported for 2019 was THB 2,250 million.

“The extra items include the impairment of satellites of total THB 1,623 million as the result of:
(1) the malfunction of the Thaicom 5 satellite which required the Company to migrate its customers to other satellites and
(2) the slowdown of the satellite industry due to change in customer behavior and intense competition causing the yield drop further than expected. The impairment, however, is considered a non-cash item and does not affect the cash management of the Company. Thaicom had remaining cash of THB 5,703 million as at the end of 2019,” says the operator.

Satellite fill-rate was also down, from 59 per cent to 55 per cent over the fleet. However, specifically on the company’s broadband ‘iPStar’/Thaicom 4 craft, utilisation was just 23 per cent, down from 30 per cent in the previous year.

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