(Bangkok Post via Newsedge) Shin Satellite said business performance is improving after the company faced its first operating loss last year.
The satellite subsidiary 41% owned by Shin anticipates a profit rebound in 2007, helped by the strong baht and healthy sales of user terminals for its iPSTAR broadband satellite from China, Australia and India.
However, Shin Satellite still faced an operating loss of 97 million baht ($2.9 million) in the first quarter of this year, despite posting a net profit of 135 million baht ($4.06 million) due to a foreign-exchange gain of 461 million baht ($13.8 million).
Thanadhit Charoenchun, Shin Satellite's VP for finance and accounting, said the company expected improved business results in 2007, helped by increasing demand for iPSTAR terminals and bandwidth locally and overseas.
The first-quarter figures did not include depreciation expenses of the $400-million iPSTAR satellite and the write-off costs for any de-orbited satellite this year.
Thanadhit said the company's first satellite, Thaicom 1, would be retired by the end of this year. The company will transfer the C-band transponders of Thaicom 1 to iPSTAR, and the Ku-band transponders to the Thaicom 5 satellite.
Thanadhit said Shin Satellite expected iPSTAR terminal sales to exceed 100,000 units by the end of this year.
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