Forth raises revenue target as digital TV vouchers go out
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Forth Corporation has revised its revenue target for this year to Bt5 billion, after the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission began distributing discount coupons for digital set-top boxes.
This should help boost revenue by more than Bt900 billion, vice president Chatchavin Pipatchotitham said.
He added that the company had set a sales target for this year of at least a million set-top boxes, after the first 300,000 units were fully booked.
Meanwhile, its subsidiary Forth Smart Service did reasonably well on its first day of trading on the Market for Alternative Investment (MAI) yesterday. A buy-back of shares is possible if the opportunity arises.
Forth estimates there are about 2 million set-top boxes in the market today, but 4.645 million discount coupons were distributed by the NBTC in the first lot. Thus the company expects demand still exists. It is rushing to turn out the devices.
In the first six months of this year Forth Corporation earned Bt1.69 billion in revenue, down by 36.41 per cent year on year.
Profit from operations before taxes was Bt139.39 million, down by 41.66 per cent, with net profit of Bt51.90 million, down by 64.75 per cent from the same period last year.
Forth Smart Services stocks closed yesterday at Bt5.10, up Bt2.60 or 104 per cent from the Bt2.50 IPO price. It was the 13th stock to debut on the MAI this year.
Forth Smart’s trading debut was reasonably well received by investors and the company is confident of generating profitability in the future for the shareholders.
The company has set a growth target of 30-40 per cent for its online top-up machines, coupled with projected advertising income via these machines of about Bt30 million next year, Chatchavin said.
