Shin Unit Reassuring Foreign Customers

By Komsan Tortermvasana, Bangkok Post, Thailand

Mar. 14–Shin Satellite Plc is continuing to expand operations abroad, with recent deals for its broadband iPSTAR satellite in New Zealand and India.

The deals come even as company executives seek to reassure overseas clients that political uncertainties in the local market will not disrupt its operations.

Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, the largest shareholder of Shin Corp, is repor

dhtedly reviewing bids to purchase Shin’s 41 percent stake in Shin Satellite.

The government has put heavy pressure on Shin and Temasek to divest the Shin Satellite holdings for national security and political reasons.

But sources said a potential deal was likely months away, given the uncertainties over Shin Satellite’s concession agreements and the need to negotiate with overseas creditors and clients.

Companies that have expressed interest in buying the shares include the telecom operators Samart and Loxley, as well as a coalition centred around the investment company Dragon One.

Shin Satellite executives said they had fielded numerous questions from overseas clients, which account for more than 70 percent of the company’s business.

“We’ve tried to explain to our clients that Thai politics is completely separate from the legal and contractual realities. So far, business hasn’t been affected too much,” one Shin Satellite executive said.

The company yesterday announced that subsidiary iPSTAR New Zealand had signed BayCity Communications as the national service operator for New Zealand.

BayCity will make a minimum purchase commitment of bandwidth and user terminals of NZ$100 million (2.28 billion baht) over a 12-year period.

Shin Satellite executive chairman Dumrong Kasemset estimated the New Zealand market for iPSTAR was 125,000 households. BayCity is committed to deploying 60,000 user terminals within five years.

Last week, Shin Satellite signed an agreement with the Indian government to establish a ground station. It hopes to eventually service 600,000 customers in India.

Shin Satellite has also finished installing three ground stations in China, raising iPSTAR service capacity to one million in the country.

Currently iPSTAR has 60,000 customers and expects to reach 100,000 by the end of the year.

Shares of Shin Satellite (SATTEL) closed unchanged yesterday on the SET at 7.45 baht in trade worth 41.14 million baht.

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