BANGKOK: Samart Corporation (SAMART), one of Thailand’s major technology service providers, plans to invest 20 billion baht ($558.66 million) this year, focusing on energy business. This move is in line with its plan to shift its core business from mobile technology to energy industry in the next three years.
Of the total, it will spend around 5 billion baht on IT solution and 500 million to one billion baht on mobile multimedia. The rest 14.5-15 billion baht will go toward its energy business.
“Competition in the mobile industry has been very fierce. Hence, we have to adjust our business to keep the revenue growth and energy will be a major revenue driver soon,” the company’s president Watchai Vilailuck said. Samart targets total consolidated revenue will surge from 20 billion baht in 2015 to 24 billion baht in 2016.
He said that 10 billion baht will come from IT solution, 7 billion baht from mobile and mobile multimedia, 5 billion baht from power-related business and the remaining 2 billion baht from other related business such as security system installation.
“We anticipate to double the revenue from energy business to 10 billion baht in the next two years, and the revenue from energy will contribute 60-70 per cent of total in the next six to seven years,” he said. It also plans to get its energy subsidiary Samart U-Trans listed on Thai bourse after it boosts total electricity capacity from the current 23 megawatts to 100 megawatts, he said.
It will invest in four waste-to-energy projects with a combined electricity generating capacity of 32 megawatts this year. Meanwhile, it is considering solar farm business in Thailand, but still waiting for the certain policy from the government.
For overseas, it will finalise a joint venture in a 10-megawatts hydropower plant in Laos soon. It is also proposing the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand to buy the electricity from its 2,000-megawatts coal-fired power plant in Cambodia.
“The coal-fired power plant’s construction is scheduled to complete in four years and we expect to get the contract from EGAT in two years, which will sustain our revenue growth in the long term,” he cited. “We expect the return on investment of 11-12 per cent on each power plant project.”
