Published on 14/11/2014
Samart venturing into power plants
Samart Corporation Plc is gearing up for aggressive investment in lucrative power plants to create a new source of sustainable revenue in the next three years. The company is now in talks to invest in four waste power plants in four provinces worth a combined 1 billion baht. The deal is expected to be inked in January next year, said chief executive Watchai Vilailuck. Yesterday its board approved setting up a new subsidiary in Thailand, Samart Waste 2 Power, with initial capital of 50 million baht to handle the new power plant business. Samart currently owns a 16-megawatt power plant in Cambodia, which supplies electricity to a cement factory owned by Siam Cement Group. The power plant and renewable energy business is attractive for Samart because it offers a lot of business opportunities. "We may find some partners for the four waste power plant projects," Mr Watchai said. "Besides waste power plants, we are also interested in wind, solar and coal power plants," he added. Samart formally set up the new business division of utilities and transportation to look for new lucrative revenue-generating sources. This division includes the power plant in Cambodia and Cambodia Air Traffic Services (CATS), Samart U-Trans Myanmar, Samart U-Trans Laos and Samart Waste 2 Power. Samart is engaged in many businesses ranging from mobile multimedia led by Samart I Mobile, information and communications technology solutions and services led by Samart Telcoms that bids for state projects, and technologyrelated ventures led by Samart Engineering that offers TV antenna and set-top boxes for digital TV. Mr Watchai said the company expected its stable source of revenue would contribute 50% of total revenue in the next three years, up from the present 30%.
The stable source of revenue will come from state projects including power plants and new projects under the utilities and transportation business group. Mr Watchai said Samart was keeping a close watch on the government's digital economy policy and might take part in some infrastructure projects in the future. The company yesterday posted consolidated revenue of 5.55 billion baht in the third quarter, a slight decline year-on-year due to the sluggish economy. Samart shares closed yesterday on the SET at 32.75 baht, up 2.25 baht, in trade worth 390 million baht.