VGI sees boom on growing ad market on Skytrain

“I am confident that our 30-per-cent top-line growth target is achievable. The economy is growing strongly while politics is quite stable,” chief executive officer Marut Arthakaival-vatee said yesterday.

Chief financial officer Suparanan Tanviruch said the company’s modern-trade media team had also prepared to boost the occupancy rate of its sales floors to 60 per cent this year, while the office-building media team has just snared 12 contracts. 

For fiscal 2012 that ended in March 2013, the company’s net profit increased at an impressive rate of 226 per cent to Bt908 million on a 43-per-cent jump in revenue to Bt2.8 billion, led by outstanding performances from all business lines. 

The company’s board has declared a final cash dividend of Bt1.40 per share and a stock dividend of one share per 10 existing shares. 

Revenue improved in all three businesses – Skytrain-related media were up 24 per cent, modern trade media up 66 per cent and office-building and other media were up 107 per cent.

Marut said that recently the Finance Ministry had upgraded its 2013 gross-domestic-product growth forecast from 5 per cent to 5.3 per cent, driven mainly by domestic consumption. Purchasing power has strengthened from many factors such as the improvement in the employment rate, the increase in the daily minimum wage to Bt300 and the rise in government investment in mega-projects.

This makes the outlook for the advertising industry this year promising. The Advertising Association of Thailand predicts that the industry will expand more than 10 per cent to Bt140 billion this year. However, the company has set a goal to grow at triple the industry’s rate.

“From the second [fiscal] quarter, 35 carriages will be added to the Skytrain’s fleet,” Marut said. “Plus, with the multimedia improvement on Skytrain stations, the more efficient customer-care team for modern trade and the expansion of the office building portfolio, which beside the 12 buildings, there are about eight to 10 buildings that have high potential to be included, I believe we can make it.” 

VGI manages the static advertising media network on the Skytrain system and in large-format modern-trade outlets across the country, consisting of more than 10,000 displays, more than 11,000 square metres of advertising area on the sales floors of outlets such as hypermarkets, and the digital ad-media network in Skytrain stations.