CAT board approves setting up two JVs
The CAT Telecom board has officially approved the state agency's plan to set up two joint ventures, Tower JV Co and Fibre JV Co, with its concession holder Total Access Communication (DTAC).
DTAC will reportedly be required to inject around Bt6.6 billion into Tower JV for a 51-per-cent share.
The move, which was agreed by the board on Monday, is part of CAT’s efforts to settle its legal disputes with DTAC over the ownership of telecommunications towers under the concession.
Colonel Sanpachai Huvanandana, CAT’s acting chief executive officer, said the agency would submit this plan for the consideration of the State Enterprise Policy Commission, also known as the "Superboard", and to the Cabinet.
"We expect that the joint ventures will get off the ground early next year after the Cabinet’s approval," he said.
CAT will hold 49 per cent of each of the two joint ventures, while DTAC will hold 51 per cent and will gradually inject cash into them. However, Sanpachai declined to disclose the planned registered capital of the companies.
Tower JV Co will incorporate around 8,000 telecom towers under the CAT-DTAC dispute. It has been reported that the total value of the towers is about Bt13 billion.
Sanpachai said that once the joint ventures are established, both CAT and DTAC would withdraw all 14 of their legal disputes.
He said CAT’s board planned to talk with True Corp to settle similar telecom-tower disputes between CAT and True’s subsidiary TrueMove within three months.
CAT’s cellular-service concession with TrueMove expired in September 2013.
CAT posted revenue in the first six months of Bt27.032 billion, with higher-than-expected profit of Bt2.144 billion. Earlier CAT expected only Bt255 million in profit for the whole year. The high revenue was contributed largely by CAT’s third-generation mobile-phone service under its whole-sale/resale contract with True Corp.
The CAT board also approved payment of a half-year dividend of Bt1 billion to the Finance Ministry, which owns 100 per cent of the agency, next month. The payment is being made a month early as part of CAT’s plan to help the government during this difficult economic period.
Meanwhile, CAT will inform the National Broadcasting and Telecom-munications Commission again that it is entitled to keep an idle 20 megahertz on the 1,800MHz spectrum, held by DTAC, until CAT’s licence under the NBTC ends in 2025, instead of 2018 when the DTAC concession ends.
