Asean-focused. Ex-Head of Thai Research

Athaporn Arayasantiparb, CFA

Athaporn served as Head of Research for UOB and ANZ in Thailand and was an award-winning telecoms analyst at UBS in 2010 (AsiaMoney Thailand category) and Regional Strategist for DMG in Singapore. Prior to that, he also served as Kasikornbank credit analyst and scholar. He has a total work experience of 22 years, of which 19 were in research and 9 in research management roles. He started his career as an engineer for PTT and currently manages family investments. He holds an MBA from Stern (NYU) and CFA Charter since 2006.

Apart from IPO Radar, which focuses on future listings, MCorp Review also performs financial advisory services for TKC Services and provides 11 other on-going thematic series ranked by frequency in descending order, namely:

1) Snippets (news-driven);
2) Sathorn Series (financial services);
3) Silicon Stories (technology); 
4) Thai-Coons (billionaire origin series);
5) Reality Check (data-driven, investigative);
6) Thai Media Spotlight;
7) Political Pit Stop; 
8) Telecom Review; 
9) Thai Macro Watch (read-through from foreign events);  
10) Small Cap Diary; and
11) Property Grid

There are also 3 limited-time series driven by specific events or locations, namely:
1) Thai Corona Crisis;
2) South Series; and
3) Mechanics and Details (deal forensics).

Snippets #27: AIS Pays for Towers, MK Acquires Seafood Chain

Reality Check XX: How Can Streaming Outfits Benefit from the Return of Digital TV Licenses?

Snippets #28: BTS Opens a School, Central/GPSC Deal Updates

Telecom Review (Sept'18): Regulatory Wranglings

Telecom Review: DTAC's Costly Decision in the Spectrum Wars

Telecom Review (June 2018): New DTAC Leadership

Asean (Thailand) Focused Independent Research

M Corp Review

M Corp is led by Athaporn Arayasantiparb who served as Head of Research for UOB and ANZ in Thailand and was an award-winning telecoms analyst at UBS in 2010 (AsiaMoney Thailand category) and Regional Strategist for DMG in Singapore. Prior to that, he also served as Kasikornbank credit analyst and scholar. He has a total work experience of 17 years, of which 14 were in research and 4 in research management roles. He started his career as an engineer for PTT and currently manages family investments. He holds an MBA from Stern (NYU) and CFA Charter since 2006. Apart from IPO Radar, which focuses on future listings, MCorp Review also provides six on-going thematic series ranked by frequency in descending order, namely: 1) Silicon Stories (technology) 2) Sathorn Series (financial services) 3) Thai-Coons (billionaire origin stories) 4) Reality Check (data-driven, investigative) 5) Thai Media Spotlight; and 6) Thai Macro Watch (global market drivers).

Equity Bottom-Up

Total Access Communication / Equity Bottom-Up

On April 4, we attended the DTAC shareholders' meeting and listened to how management defended their strategic decisions in various areas such as legal settlements, marketing, and spectrum bidding. This is our take on their responses to various issue:<ul>
<li>
Settlement with CAT. DTAC plans to do a further settlement worth Bt9.05bn nett with CAT to resolve all past bilateral issues, but will resume paying dividends in H2'19.</li>
<li>
Spectrum. Since they still have less spectrum than both AIS and True Move, we can't really fault them for bidding for the 900MHz spectrum, especially since competition has come down considerably.</li>
<li>
Marketing. Like AIS, they are looking beyond just voice airtime. Mobile gaming is one area they will look at. DTAC's subsidy on game-centric iPhones and the data airtime that comes with it is significantly more than both True Move and AIS.</li>
<li>
Others. They also managed to get a raise for the Chairman and do finishing touches on the PaySabai  (a payment platform) consolidation. In our view, these are really formalities at this phase, since PaySabai is pretty much wholly owned.</li>
</ul>

On April 4, we attended the DTAC shareholders' meeting and listened to how management defended their strategic decisions in various areas such as legal settlements, marketing, and spectrum bidding. This is our take on their responses to various issue:

Settlement with CAT. DTAC plans to do a further settlement worth Bt9.05bn nett with CAT to resolve all past bilateral issues, but will resume paying dividends in H2'19.

Spectrum. Since they still have less spectrum than both AIS and True Move, we can't really fault them for bidding for the 900MHz spectrum, especially since competition has come down considerably.

Marketing. Like AIS, they are looking beyond just voice airtime. Mobile gaming is one area they will look at. DTAC's subsidy on game-centric iPhones and the data airtime that comes with it is significantly more than both True Move and AIS.

Others. They also managed to get a raise for the Chairman and do finishing touches on the PaySabai  (a payment platform) consolidation. In our view, these are really formalities at this phase, since PaySabai is pretty much wholly owned.


Telecom Review (April 2019): DTAC Calls for Truce With CAT