ANTI-GOVERNMENT protests in Bangkok forced its 2 airports to halt operations last week but Mr Boh Tuang Poh, executive chairman of Asia’s largest online hotel reservation network, Asiatravel.com is not overly concerned about its impact on his business.
Thailand contributes less than 15% of sales for the online travel portal, and Mr Boh believes the airport blockade could cease in several days.
In the past year, the travel industry in Asia was beleaguered by several incidents such as the snowstorm in Southern China, the earthquake in Sichuan, visa restrictions on travel to China during the Olympics, and political instability in Malaysia.
Despite all that, the company has achieved higher sales and profit. Asiatravel.com has further good news for shareholders: It declared a 1.1-cent dividend last Friday, bringing its total dividend payout for FY08 to 2 cents per share, up 43% from the previous year.
Based on Friday's closing price of 29.5 cents per share, dividend yield works out to some 6.8%.
Revenue & profit up 22%
FY08 group revenue was S$85.7 million, up 22% yoy, and profit attributable to shareholders also grew 22% to S$6.1 million.
Profit before tax margins were maintained at 8.1%, compared to 8.6% in FY07.
The company’s online hotel reservation network, which allows travelers to book rooms in over 50,000 hotels in more than 150 countries worldwide, grew 20.4% to S$56.2 million. Segment contribution to group sales was 65.5%.
Revenue from hotel promotion services, which produces TV commercials for hotels on Star World, an Asian English language cable TV channel, grew 30.1% to S$1.8 million.
Tour packages, which provides coach plus tour guide service within Singapore, fell 5.7% to S$18.2 million.
Travelers are also able to make instant flight reservations departing from 11 countries in Asia on the Asiatravel.com online portal.
Air-ticket sales were robust, tripling to S$9.6 million y-o-y.
”Online travel service is still gaining popularity as the number of Internet users is still increasing and an online portal facilitates convenient comparison of travel deals,” said Mr Boh.
The company has minimal debt ($684,000 in short-term debt and $2.3 million in long-term debt) and has been buying back its shares from the open market.
