Good morning, everyone. Welcome to True Corporation's earnings disclosure for the first quarter of 2026. My name is Naureen, I'm the Head of Investor Relations. With us today is our Group CEO, Khun Sigve, and our CFO, Khun Nakul. I'd also like to welcome all the analysts who've joined us in True Tower today, and to those of you who are joining us online. Before we start, for the Q&A, for those of you who are online, please raise your hand, or you can write your questions in the comment box. I will be alternating between questions from the room and questions online. With that, I'd like to hand over to Khun Sigve to start his presentation.
Thank you, Naureen, a very good morning to those of you that are in the room, and also to those of you that are online. Let me start with the key highlights from the first quarter. As you may recall from the Q4 last year, that was the quarter when we returned to positive subscribers, net adds, and also revenue growth. I must say that I'm quite pleased that we have sustained that momentum now going into Q1 of this year. During the quarter, we delivered positive subscriber growth in both mobile and online, even as the macroeconomic environment became more challenging. On mobile, we added more than 600,000 subscribers quarter-on-quarter, reflecting improved churn control and a clear focus on quality acquisition, and this comes on the base of a significant better network experience.
As a result, mobile revenue increased 0.2% quarter-on-quarter. In online, we achieved the highest quarterly net adds since amalgamation of 36,000, while revenue improved 2.3%. I must say that this is encouraging, and it reflects improvement in the customer experience across both our network, as I already said, and our aftercare services. At the same time, our profitability focus continued to improve, which supported the board decision to declare an interim dividend. The board approved an interim dividend of THB 0.14 per share for Q1, equivalent to a 73% payout ratio. You can also then expect us, going forward, to pay quarterly dividends. After three years, since the merger, we mainly, during those three years, focused on taking out synergies.
Now we see the first early signs of impact of our longer-term transformation initiatives that we have embarked on. Our network modernization is delivering a significant better customer experience, supporting competitiveness in gross adds and continued churn reduction. Our transformation is also strengthening our resilience in the middle of the macroeconomic headwind we see in the quarter. Geopolitical tensions are increasing macro uncertainty, it is impacting tourism. We saw a slowdown in tourism in March and expect a pressure to continue in the coming month. We are also seeing softer consumer and business sentiment alongside with a downwards revision to GDP growth forecast. In response to that macroeconomic development, we are taking proactive measures to manage these challenges. We are strengthening retention and deploying targeted incentives to sustain our active subscriber base.
At the same time, we remain this very disciplined on cost and are maintaining our OpEx guidance for the year. Importantly, we are also actively conducting scenario planning and risk assessment to stay prepared across a range of outcomes coming from the macroeconomic challenges that we have. At the beginning of the year, we defined four big moves, as we call it, to guide our transformation this year. This includes Big Move on experience, Big Move on growth, Big Move on AI, and Big Move on people. Together, these four big moves, they represent now our core priorities for this year and shaping how we execute and how we will focus our investments going forward. In the next slide, I will go through the key highlights from these four big moves that happened in the quarter.
In Q1, we made strong progress in two key areas: enhancing customer experience and driving revenue growth. On experience, we continued our broadband network modernization in the highest impact areas and delivering now a 36% year-over-year improvement in the TrueOnline minutes lost per customers. That's the network down downtime. This was a significant contributor to the net adds and also the revenue growth we saw in our broadband business. On mobile, we further optimize capacity and availability, reducing congestion and improving stability in the network. This translated into a record high Net Promoter Score, up 22% year-over-year. The highest since the amalgamation. A record low churn coming from that. The churn is actually down 42% year-on-year. This we see as a direct feedback from our customers.
Beyond the network, in all our customer touch points, we are systematically, one by one, addressing root causes when it comes to customer issues to proactively deliver a more seamless end-to-end experience for our customers. We have also accelerated the True App adoption by enhancing self-service. We are reducing call center inquiries by 19% and shifting many of those inquiries into a digital communication with the customers. We have actually shifted 71% of all those physical transactions that used to happen in the call center and in the shop now to digital channels with a lower cost and a better customer experience. On growth, we launched what we call TrueOnline MyPlan, enabling more flexible, more personalized bundles. The early traction is strong.
That plan in itself is driving over 3 % of our gross additions in the quarter with approximately 20% higher RPU of those customers that come in on that plan. We expect an even better impact of this in Q2. In mobile, we are seeing a strong prepaid rebound led by the migrant segment. In January, we moved quickly to simplify registration after the regulatory changes, enabling faster onboarding and reinforcing our number one market position in the migrant segment. Finally, we continue also to turn around our media and content business and strengthen our content leadership. We have now relaunched the True Academy Fantasia with over 10,000 applicants nationwide, and we have also went into a partnership with NTT DOCOMO to broadcast Japanese live action content. To summarize, I'm pleased with the performance in the first quarter.
We are on plan, the first quarter was according to our expectations. We will now take the performance in the first quarter and sustain that into a growth momentum, based on a strong network foundation going into the rest of the year. We want to further improve customer metrics, further improve disciplined financial management, and the outcome of that is a clear growth engine across all our segments, while at the same time also managing the challenges that may come. With that, I will hand over to Nakul to go through the financials. Please, Nakul.
Thank you so much, Khun Sigve. Good morning, good afternoon, everybody here in the room and also online on the call. Please allow me to walk you through the financial highlights for Q1 of 2026. Firstly, on the service revenues, we see a decline year-on-year of 0.6% and a decline of 0.4% on a quarter-on-quarter basis. I will explain the numbers in a little bit more detail in the next slides. On the EBITDA, we see a healthy growth of almost 11% on a year-on-year basis and a 0.7% quarter-on-quarter. The reported net profit is about THB 6.6 billion with no normalizations this quarter, which is a 4x increase on a year-on-year basis and a 1.6x Q-on-Q.
The leverage is now down to 3.8x. If you remember at amalgamation we were 5.7x, which is a 0.3x reduction year-on-year and a 0.2x Q-on-Q as well. Khun Sigve has already mentioned on the interim dividend, which is THB 0.14, which turns out to be THB 4.8 billion, which is a 73% payout ratio. I'll talk to you about the dividend policy as I go forward in the presentation. If we look at the top line development of the company, let me first start on the right-hand side. As you can see, the total revenues are declining 9.8% year-on-year.
The one factor that is overwhelming that leads to the decline is basically the decline in that light purple that you see, THB 4.9 billion in Q1 2025, which goes down to THB 0.2 billion in Q1 2026. This is basically due to lower network equipment rental revenues on the expiration of the arrangement with NT following the acquisition of spectrum. If you exclude that, we are more or less flat or slightly growing on a year-on-year basis. If you go to the extreme left to see the service revenue development, it's a - 0.6% on a year-on-year, then a - 0.4%. If you normalize for the domestic roaming, the service revenue has declined only 0.2% on a year-on-year basis and actually has grown 0.4% on a Q1 Q.
This is also primarily driven by the lower contribution from the pay TV, which I will explain in the middle graph that you see. If you see the walk of the service revenue on a year-on-year basis, which is the middle graph, from THB 41.3 billion to THB 41 billion, the pink that you see is pay TV, which has declined THB 500 million. The decline in pay TV, which I will explain later, is basically on account of not having EPL and also an organic decline in the subscription revenues on TV. If you see the rest of the businesses, which is online, has grown THB 0.2 billion, and actually mobile has also grown THB 0.2 billion, save for the organic decline in NT domestic roaming that we've always shared with you in the past.
If I go on to the mobile business, let me start with the middle graph here, which is the subscribers. We report 365,000 additions in the prepaid subscribers in this quarter and another 248,000 in postpaid. As a consequence, the total subscriptions in terms of number of subs have increased 1.3% on a quarter-on-quarter basis. The ARPU on a blended basis has slightly declined, but that's primarily coming on account of the fact that the postpaid ARPU has declined by about THB 6 . More than half of this is basically on account of the dilution in ARPU that is coming from subs addition because of our participation in the Ministry of Education program, which is Study Anywhere, Anytime.
That basically makes sure that the student segment gets a SIM at a cheap price, you know, just to make sure that there is a further digitization happening in the country. In terms of the mobile service revenues, it is 0.2% year-on-year and Q-on-Q as well, which is basically driven by net subscriber addition despite the seasonality. Let me explain that in a little bit more detail. On a quarter-on-quarter basis, the number of days which impact the prepaid business is actually lower by 2%, which roughly impacts 2.2% of prepaid revenues. In spite of that, which is impacting the prepaid, we see a mobile business growing 0.2% on a quarter-on-quarter basis.
If I move on to online, there is a 3.4% growth in online revenues on a year-on-year basis and a 2.3% growth on a quarter-on-quarter basis, which is coming on the back of an all-time high subscriber addition of 36,000. There is ongoing improvement in subscribers, which is coming as a result of the improvement in the customer experience, both on the network and the touch points as far as the online business is concerned that Khun Sigve has already explained. In terms of the ARPU, it is flat on a quarter-on-quarter basis at THB 492, but the subscriber addition is the one that is clear takeout from this slide. As far as the TV business is concerned, I think this explains what I was mentioning earlier in terms of the decline of THB 500 million
If you see the left-hand side of the graph, the subscription revenues has actually reduced from THB 1.1 billion to THB 0.8 billion. You see the other element that has seen the biggest decline, which is basically the concerts, which are basically seasonal in nature. The big reduction that you see in the subscription on a year-on-year basis is basically coming on the fact that there is a decline because of EPL not being there and an organic reduction in the subscription. If you see on a quarter-on-quarter basis, THB 0.8 billion in Q4 2025 subscription revenues and THB 0.8 billion in Q1 2026, which means we are able to address the organic decline in subscription revenues by focusing more on OTT.
Still, we're not there yet, but we expect this trend to be positive as we go forward towards the end of the year. Total subscribers are about 1 million with an ARPU of THB 264. If you allow me to move on to the OpEx, it's a 29.8% reduction year-on-year in OpEx, which is benefited by acquisition of spectrum and the synergies alike. In terms of the regulatory cost for Q1, it has increased almost 9.7% year-on-year and 8.6% Q-on-Q due to the change in the full year effective rate pursuant to the expiration of spectrum arrangement with NT.
You would remember that there was an impact of this last year as well, and there is an ongoing impact of this in 2026, because this year we need to factor in seven months impact of the change in the spectrum policy from an HSPA contract with NT to an acquisitional spectrum. That's why this is happening as expected. The network cost for Q1 has declined 25% year-on-year, benefited by acquisition of spectrum and also the network modernization. Cost of sales for Q1 have declined 2.8% year-on-year and 13.7% Q-on-Q, which is in tandem with the product sales. If you notice, the product sales are lower because Q4 was high season because the iPhone launch.
The SG&A has increased 5.3% year-on-year due to performance bonus accrual and lower bad debts because Q1 was actually lower because of one-time collections last year. It's also decreased 2.7% because of lower marketing spends, mainly on this line item. As you can see from the numbers, there is an elimination of spectrum rental cost due to expiration of spectrum arrangement, and that's why the line item on spectrum rental cost is not there anymore. Other cost of providing services has declined 13% year-on-year and 8.9% due to lower content cost, as I have explained earlier. As a consequence, the total OpEx is actually reducing about 30% year-on-year and 6% on a quarter-on-quarter basis. Let me move on to the profitability matrices.
On the EBITDA, as I had mentioned, there is a 10.9% increase year-on-year, which is basically driven by the benefit coming on account of spectrum acquisition and the synergies. We report an EBITDA for Q1 at about THB 28 billion, which is coming at the back of an EBITDA margin of 68.3% to service revenues, which is a whopping 7.1 percentage point increase year-on-year and a 0.8 p p increase on a Q-on-Q basis. There has been THB 8.6 billion improvement in EBITDA or a 44% growth since amalgamation. I would like for all of you to note this number as well.
In terms of the profitability, as you can see, there is a profit of about THB 6.6 billion in Q1 of 2026 with no one-time effects, as we had shared with you earlier as well. If I compare the reported profit from Q1 of 2025 to Q1 of 2026 and also quarter-on-quarter from Q4 of 2025 to Q1 of 2026, there is a 4x and a 1.6x increase respectively as far as the net profit is concerned. As you can see from the second graph, the financial cost has also decreased 7.7% year-on-year and also a 7.9% Q-on-Q due to a 0.4 percentage points year-on-year and a 0.1 percentage points Q-on-Q reduction in the effective interest cost.
This is something that we have been highlighting to you over the past many, many quarters. The depreciation and amortization has increased 4.1% year-over-year due to acquisition of new spectrum, as you're all aware, while declining 1.1% Q-on-Q from seasonality as well. As far as CapEx is concerned, we report CapEx of about THB 4.3 billion in Q1 with CapEx to sales at about 9%. We still go with the guidance that we have given for the full year, which is about THB 25 billion-THB 27 billion in terms of the total CapEx spends.
This quarter we're also sharing where the CapEx in this quarter has been spent and as you can see, 49% is spent in the mobile business, 23% is in online, about 15% is on IT, as well as supporting the B2B business as well. Our favorite topic. This is the leverage. From 4.1x, which is net debt to EBITDA at Q1 2025, now we are reporting 3.8x. We are going well in terms of our plan to reach the 3.5x number by the end of this year. As you can also see, the effective interest cost in the middle graph has actually gone down significantly from a 4.1% to 3.7% in Q1 2025 versus a Q1 2026.
The net debt has also decreased Q-on-Q, which is driven by disciplined debt optimization and effective cash management. The increase in lease liabilities, as you're all aware, is because of the transfer of assets to DIF. We've also issued, actually debentures of about THB 14.5 billion at a weighted average cost of about 2.8%, and this was done very, very recently. Worthwhile to note, over the last few years, THB 126 billion of debt has been refinanced in 2024. THB 113 billion has been refinanced in 2025. Right now, for the nine months, we're left with THB 41 billion, of which THB 14 billion has already been issued just a couple of days back. My last slide is basically on the interim dividend.
Khun Sigve has shared already THB 4.8 billion of interim dividend with a DPS of THB 0.14 at a payout ratio of 73%. You know, the record date for the dividend is gonna be 21st of May, and a payout is gonna be on 5th of June. I would also like to highlight a change in the dividend policy. Now, the dividend policy stands at paying no less than 50% of the net profits on a quarterly basis. The change from the previous dividend policy is from a semiannual, we are changing to quarterly dividends. But the percentage payouts is remaining the same at least 50%. And of course, it is subject to the review of the consolidated financial statements and approval of the board of directors as well. With this, I hand over to Khun Naureen for the Q&A. Thank you.
Thank you, Khun Nakul. Thank you, Khun Sigve. We can start our questions from the room first. We already have some queuing. Khun Pisut, please.
Hello. This is Pisut from Kasikorn Securities. Congratulations on your good result. I have couple of questions for this round. I will keep time for other people as well. The first one is about the guidance. This time you haven't mentioned about the guidance. It would be great if you can recap the guidance, first of all, and what happened in, on the demand side, in March and April after the conflict in the Middle East. What's your, how you're confident to achieve your guidance, especially on the top line side? This is my first question, Khun.
Yeah, I think I can address that one. No, we didn't mention the guiding because there is no change to the guiding. And we are still pursuing the same guiding as we gave you when we announced the last quarter. However, there is one uncertainty, and of course, that's the macroeconomic effects. We think we have good control over the operation now, both on the cost development, and also on the net add additions, including also driving revenue.
That is in our control. How badly we will be affected by tourists not coming back or the more general macroeconomic environment in Thailand, that is an unknown. But as we see it now, there is no reason why we should give up the guiding. We foresee that going into this quarter and the remaining part of the year, we will continue the steady performance that you have seen now in the first quarter. That's why we maintain the guiding.
Yeah. A little bit on the demand side in March and April after the conflict, after the, you know, economic situation is getting worse. Have you seen any, you know, impact, like, top-up run rate, from the prepaid side, from the first two month of the year, which would be still okay? Also, the number of tourist arrival, which actually, at first expect to grow this year. Right now everyone start to cutting out, cutting down because of the, you know, the impact. Yes.
On the tourists, yes, there are fewer tourists coming. We think we are maintaining our market share in the tourist segment. Of course, if that tourist segment is continue to go down, that could affect us. I think it's too early to say. The level of tourists that we saw in January, February, and then Songkran came in early April, was a little bit lower. It's yet to be seen how that is going to develop. More importantly, in the mass market, we haven't seen any down selling of people's packages. I think the way we read that is that our business is quite resilient, even when it comes to macroeconomic challenges that we see now, because we basically have a product that people are in need of. So far we haven't seen any down selling or any reduction in the demand.
Okay. Thank you. My second question is about your revenue market shares. Actually, you was mobile and broadband revenue will start to recover, I mean, back to the growth phase. If you compare with your competitors in terms of the market shares, you're still losing the market shares. My question is, you know, what's your strategy to at least, you know, make a fair shares between you and your competitors? How much, what else you have to put into the market to make them understand how good your network is, you know, and also the price point is better in terms of the offering? It would be good if you can share with us.
Well, the first thing I will say is that don't expect us to trigger any price war. We think that this industry is serving our customers well. Our focus, and, according to what I hear our competitors are saying, is to grow their relationship with the customers that we have. Meaning, that we are focusing on both quality connectivity services, but we are also focusing on bringing what we call beyond connectivity service to the customers. That being in the online business, bringing IoT services, that being in the mobile business, adding content, or in the B2B segment, where it's more IT integrated products. That is our focus. Our revenue growth is going to come from the base management, as we call it, to grow the customers that we have.
We don't see any need to trigger anything that could end up in a bad industry development. My second point is that don't think that we will aggressively take back the market share that we lost either. I want to be clear on that. Going forward, we want to take our fair share of the market growth. That's why I think Nakul also in his presentation focused very much on the Q-on-Q development.
If you focus on year-on-year, yes, we are not doing as well as our competitor. I think that's a little bit unfair comparison also if you think about the struggles that we had in the beginning of last year. Q-on-Q, I think we are not really losing market share anymore. We are doing quite well on net additions. A little bit behind on the online business, but we are catching up. Revenue-wise, I think we now finally in this quarter are turning the curve a bit whereby we take our fair share. That's our focus going forward.
Thank you. My last question for this round is about the two cost item, which is the electricity cost, which is about to rise, right? Also the tax charge, corporate tax, that is still below the normal level of the normal corporates. You know, question is that, you know, what the impact if on your, you know, basically the percentage of electricity cost to your cash OpEx in the first of all. How can you control that if the FTE, you know, pick up? Also the tax normalizations, when we will see that you're gonna pay 20% of the EBIT, EBT, as other companies? Thank you.
Yeah, I can take that. Thank you for your third question, Khun Pisut. In terms of the FTE rates or the energy rates, I think the government has already announced an increase that is applicable from May until August. That increase is marginal. There is going to be some impact on the OpEx, but the impact is not going to be as significant as was earlier expected when the discussions were ongoing on what kind of an amount needs to be passed on to the consumers. I think you are aware of this.
What is gonna happen beyond that actually remains to be seen. We don't disclose what is the energy cost as a percentage of total OpEx, but it is of course around 50% of the total network cost actually represents the energy cost, so you can do the math there. In terms of taxes, as I mentioned in the past, we have carry forward losses and as a consequence, we are not in a tax-paying position. We don't expect to be tax-paying position in 2026 for sure. Of course, there is gonna be some corporate income tax, and that's gonna be on companies which are some of our subsidiaries which are profit-making, but that amount is less than about THB 400 million-THB 500 million.
In terms of the expense in the P&L, because expense in the P&L will not necessarily go in line with the tax payouts because that is built on the deferred tax assets that we have recorded in the past. I think for the purposes of modeling, what you can assume is that, as far as 2026 is concerned, the ETR, the effective tax rate will be mid to low single digits in terms of percentage.
That's what you can assume as far as 2026 is concerned. For 2027, I would say we will probably start going towards the normal effective tax rate, though it'll not be 20%, but maybe low teens is what you can assume if you want to do the, if you want to do the modeling, Khun. As far as the tax payout is concerned for 2027, we will have some carry forward losses at the end of this year, which we can utilize for next year. That's why the low teens, as I mentioned, Khun.
Let me just add one point on the energy piece. We are actively installing solar panels as a part of our sustainability agenda, but we also are actively using AI now to bring down energy consumption in our network. I don't remember the number, but the last year we had quite some sizable numbers on less energy consumption.
THB 350.
How much?
THB 350 million.
Yeah. THB 350 million. Yeah. You know, in lower energy spending due to that, the AI program that we have.
Thank you, Khun Pisut. I'd like to move online to Arthur. Can you please unmute yourself?
Hi, good morning. Thanks for the opportunity. 3 questions for me, please. Firstly, on the dividends. Just wondering what is the basis for your dividend determination. You've got minimum 50%, but you've actually paid 73%. Should we expect variability on this on a Q-on-Q basis on the DPS? Second question is with regard to foreign partnerships. Given that Telenor had exited in March, I'm just wondering how True is dealing with supplier negotiations and benchmarking for purchases. Has it signed any collaboration deal with any global player to address this?
Have you actually signed all of the relevant executives that you wanted to retain? Last question is with regard to mobile. AIS has been touting the commercial launch of its 5G Advanced network. I'm just wondering how you see this as impacting your own network plans and mobile momentum. Would this change the customer experience or alter your competition, based on what you're seeing on the ground?
Yeah. I can try that. On the dividend side, we are not changing the dividend policy. That is a payout above 50%, as Khun Nakul said. In the last quarter, we did say that we had the dividend guidance for this year, and that was a payout of around 70%. There is no change to that either. We are delivering on that guidance with the 73%. The change is then going from paying it 2x a year and today paying it 4x a year. The reason why we have changed that, and this is a discussion we have had with the board, because now we feel our operation is in a little bit more steady state.
We are True, all the synergy takeout that we did the first three years. We are coming back on revenue growth. We are coming back on the subscriber growth. Now it's more steady state. In a steady state, we think it's prudent for us actually to pay out dividend on a quarterly basis. I think the shareholders should like that because that's also giving some what you call it, pressure to the management team to actually deliver on that, not only deliver in the end of the year, but deliver constantly every quarter. That's the reason for why we changed this and the discussion we had with the Board.
Yes, we are in the middle of changing the way we are dealing with the procurement company that we had with Telenor. As soon as we have finalized that, we can discuss that. There is no changes to the way we do it. We are trying then to still utilize relationships to capture the scale of procurement such that we can get better prices. We will end up with probably having relationship to several procurement companies just to make sure we get the best out of it. On the CXOs, yes. First, I secured this guy. Happy with that, Khun Nakul. Then I have also secured the other guys. There will not be any change, neither in for myself nor for the CFO, nor for the other key executives.
That is going on plan. On the last part, on the mobile. Yeah, I saw our competitor announced the 5G Advanced or 5G plus yesterday. We have exactly the same. What this actually is that you do a carrier aggregation. You are combining different network bands, and you are deploying those for 5G. We do exactly the same. So the experience that the customers will have when you do this, spectrum, aggregation is a better speed.
We are now aggregating our 5G on 2.6 with 2.3. That's a part of the upgrade we do now in the network. The result of that is a much better speed experience because you basically have access then to a much wider spectrum band. We also do standalone 5G, as I also saw our competitor talked about. If you call that 5G Advanced, if you call it 5G Advanced or whatever you call it's basically just to constantly upgrade your network and trying to utilize the spectrum portfolio you have. Here I think the two competitors are very similar in the way we are approaching this.
Understood. Thank you very much.
Just, if I can just add something on the, you know, on the dividend part. In terms of cash flow, Arthur, Q1, our cash flows are roughly THB 3.5 billion, THB 3.4 billion to be specific. This is after spectrum payout of about THB 6.2 billion. If you remember, total spectrum payout for the year is about THB 10 billion, so 62% happens in Q1. In spite of that, our cash flows are positive. The point we're trying to make is that we have confidence in the linear availability for us to generate cash flows on an ongoing basis, and hence we are confident on the having quarterly dividends. Thank you.
Thank you. Can we move on to Khun Mai from InnovestX?
Okay, I.
Sorry, his mic is not working.
Okay, it's working now. It is on from InnovestX Securities. Thanks for the opportunity. I have two questions. My first question is I just want to understand why the fixed broadband ARPU in the first quarter was relatively flat quarter-on-quarter and also lower year-on-year. Because my understanding is that the static package now is above the average ARPU. Given the positive net add, we should expect to see ARPU to improve quarter-on-quarter in the first quarter. That's my first questions. My second question is about the leverage. At what level that you think that we could expect to see credit rating upgrade? That's all.
Thank you for the question, Khun Mai. In terms of the fixed broadband ARPU, I think we are reporting THB 498 in Q1 as well as Q4. There is a minor accounting effect that has happened in Q1, which is basically on how the revenue is shared between the two businesses, which is online as well as mobile. This impact is very small for the mobile business, that's why we don't mention it there. As far as online is concerned, if we normalize that, Q4 would be THB 496, Q1 will be THB 500. There is a 4 THB improvement. It is still lower than the last year. Last year was THB 501.
To just maybe supplement that, there is an opportunity for us to improve the ARPU of the broadband business. As Khun Sigve had mentioned, these are the new packages that we have introduced on Online, where the more the customer consumes, the more new offers that the customers takes on beyond connectivity, the more ARPU is going to come for us. You are absolutely right. Standard packages are starting at THB 499 or even THB 599.
This ARPU will increase as we go forward, as we execute on our strategy. I think Khun Sigve also shared that a significant percentage of the customers are using those bundled offers, which increase the ARPU. This will increase over a period of time. Your next question was on the leverage. I think we have given our guidance on the leverage for the long term, right? I mean, we've mentioned that by the end of this year, we will be at 3.5x, by 2028 we will be at 3x levels. Right now in the first quarter itself, we are sitting at about 3.8x. We are well on course, well on course to reach the guidance on the leverage.
In terms of what is the threshold for the rating agencies to give an upgrade, we've already got an upgrade. I don't know whether you saw it or not. Now, instead of a stable outlook at A-plus rating, we are actually at a positive outlook in. There is already a rating upgrade. If we continue to deliver on what we are saying, I don't expect a further upgrade to happen just yet because we've already got one just about a month and a half back. Thank you.
Thank you, Khun Mai. I'd like to move online to Khun Jean. Can you please unmute?
Hi, can you hear me?
Yes, we can.
Thank you. I have three questions. The first one, can you update us on the development of 1,500 that you bought last year? My understanding is that the ecosystem, especially the handset, it's still not fully developed in Thailand. That's the first question. What have you done with the spectrum? Number two, if you look at your total service revenue growth in the first quarter compared to your full year guidance, it's implied that you expect to see the revenue growth picking up for the remaining nine months of the year. Is that a fair statement?
The third one is pretty detailed questions. If you look at your depre and amortization expense in the cost of service, it's declined by more than THB 300 million Q-on-Q. You mention in your MD&A that this is seasonality. Can you elaborate the seasonality and maybe? Can we use the first quarter level as a benchmark for remaining of the year, or will it increase or decline further from here? Thank you.
Yeah, I can take the two first one. The 1,500 spectrum that we got in the last auction, we are yet to implement that in our network. We have just now finalized a new negotiation with our vendors to basically do two things. One is to then start integrated 1,500 in our network, which will give us both some capacity advantages, but also in some areas and coverage advantage. We will also then upgrade the 2.3 extra 10 MHz we got in our auction. Those two things are we going to do now. In addition to what I already talked about, this carrier aggregation. That is going to happen actually by now. Now we have started to do that.
I think the latest number I saw on the handset that are eligible with 1,500 is around 25%-30%. This is very much the same we saw when we introduced 4G in Thailand many years ago. This is accelerating very fast. I think that all the new handsets that have been sold, being the iPhone handsets or the Samsung handsets, have had this now for several years. That's why it's around 25% or 30%, I think, of the handsets.
The second point is, yes, of course, we are not changing the guiding, which means that we need to do better in the remaining three quarters when it comes to revenue, than we did in the first quarter. I'm quite confident that we will be able to do that. With that uncertainty, I said on the macro. So far, it does not really change demand, but I don't know how this is going to work. That is the uncertain factor which is out of our control. What is in our control, it's then that you will see a better growth profile going forward.
Yes. Thank you, Khun Sigve. Thank you, Khun Jean, for the question. We were actually looking forward to seeing you in person today. Hopefully next time.
Okay.
On the D&A, let me split this into the two, because this time, for the first time, we started to disclose depreciation and amortization separately. If you look at the amortization, it's declined 2.1% on a quarter-on-quarter basis, roughly THB 200 million. This decline, when we say seasonality, is basically on account of the number of days because the assets are capitalized in the books and they are depreciated over a useful life. Because the Q1 has 90 days as compared to Q4 of 92, there is a two divided by 90, which is a 2.1% impact. It is as simple as that. As far as depreciation is concerned, your question would be that why is the seasonality not impacting depreciation?
The answer to that is yes, it has impacted the depreciation as well. It should have been lower by about 2%, save for two effects. One is the impact of the CapEx that we had booked in Q4, which will be depreciated, which is being depreciated in Q1. That is small amount. The other reason is a change in useful life of certain fiber assets that are there for the online business. This has been disclosed in our financial statements.
The change is from a 30-year life to a 20-year life, which has an impact of roughly THB 200 million. If you look at, as far as depreciation is concerned, it should have been lower by THB 200, but it's kind of flat because of this additional THB 200 million that we booked on account of change in useful life. Impact for the full year on this is gonna be THB 800 million. Q1 has already taken the effect of THB 200, there should not be no additional impact in Q2 as far as this line item is concerned. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Okay. I have a question on text, so let me just take this first. Khun Sigve, this is for you. When Arise purchased Telenor stake, it was mentioned that the board would consider an employee stock option for senior management. Can you share a progress? This is from Piyush, HSBC. Piyush, your second question has already been answered, so we will only stick to this one. Update on employee stock option.
Yes. That's correct. The board had made a decision on this last night. How it's going to work, it's a mix between an ESOP program and an EJIP program, as we call it in Thailand. The CEO will have 30% allocation from the company, up to 30% of the base salary allocation, and he or she need to contribute with 15% individually. All the management team will get 20% allocation from the company and need to contribute individually with 10%.
On the next level and the level below that, they will also get, but then to a much lower percentage allocation from the company. This is a way for us to make sure that the management on both my level and next level and the two lower levels are fully incentivized the same way as the minority shareholders are to drive the share price and look at that in additional course to meet their SG&A targets or yearly bonus targets.
Okay. Thank you, Piyush. We move on to Khun Wasu in the room with us.
Maybe I can start with the EJIP question first. The EJIP terms are quite generous for the top management. My question is, would this stock investment program lead to higher SG&A expenses in the future? That's my first question. The second question is regarding other cost of services which dropped by 9% Q-on-Q in the first quarter. I understand that it's mainly coming from the lower content cost. My question is, what would be the quarterly trend going forward for the other cost of services?
On the EJIP, of course, the impact of the EJIP to the extent of the company share is gonna be booked in the books. I don't have the amount that is gonna be impacted, but if it's only for the senior management, as Khun Sigve mentioned, the amount is not gonna be very significant to make a big dent on the SG&A going forward. As far as your next question on the cost of service. Cost of service you need to look at as a function of the service revenue as well because the direct cost incurred to run the revenues of all the businesses is actually booked here.
The Q-on-Q reduction is because, you know, the music and entertainment, which was booked in Q4 in terms of revenues, which has a low margin, had a cost element in Q4 as well, which is not there in Q1. That's why it's lower. On a year-over-year, it's a function of EPL, as we have shared with you in the past. Though the net savings of EPL has been reinvested in other content in order to make sure that the subscription revenues on TV does not decline as we go forward. I think the way to look at the cost of service is to see it as a direct function of the different businesses in terms of revenues. That's how we see it as well.
Okay. Maybe just add, I forgot to say that the stock option program, or the stock program was announced to the stock exchange last night, also in detail. You will find more details there.
Okay. We move on to Khun Nuttapop from TTB.
Oh, wow. You already mentioned that. Thank you. Nuttapop from ttb Wealth Securities . First one on number, please. You guide on net debt to EBITDA to until 2027, I believe. Can you recap us about, like, your long-term guidance since I think the consolidation period? Just let me check whether there are any, like, accrue payments in kinda like either working capital or CapEx that we need to aware of when, like, consider your future free cash flow.
In terms of the long-term guidance on the leverage, we expect it to be 3x, around 3x by 2028. End of this year we said it's gonna be 3.5x. That's what we have indicated. In terms of any exceptional items, no. Except for the fact that we've considered a 70% dividend payout, as Khun Sigve already shared. We expect gradual unwinding of the cash payouts that needs to be made for the CapEx that we have done in the past. I don't think there are any exceptional items here. A gradual improvement in free cash flow as we have seen on a regular basis. That's how the leverage has been worked out. Of course, the improvement in leverage is a function of both. It's a function of improvement in debt as well as a gradual improvement in EBITDA, both as well, Nuttapop.
Okay. Thank you, Khun. My second question, I'm thinking about your further cost reduction. Please recap us about the brand consolidation that I think is both regulatory and maybe your willingness to consolidate the brand as well. What is the timeline that they've forced us to keep two brands and whether you plan to do this and will that result in further cost savings potential?
Yeah, there is no regulatory requirements anymore. That expired actually in March. It was the first three years you had to keep both brands alive. We are free to do whatever we want now. We are now planning to implement a one-brand strategy. True will be the one brand. But we are going to do this very gradually because we want to make sure that there is a brand uplift for both the True customers and also the dtac customers. This, we are in the planning period now, but don't expect us to do anything, big campaigns, this year. It's more likely to happen next year when all the plans are laid out. Will there be some cost savings out of that? Yes, because we basically then can run one brand rather than doing two. I cannot give you any numbers on that.
It would be like more gradual rather than like one lumpy cost saving kind of.
Yes, it will be gradual. Absolutely. Because this need to be done in a proper way. This is not only about running marketing campaigns. It's not only about signs on the shops. It's about making sure that the loyalty program is upgraded, making sure that it's aligned with the marketing campaigns, with new promotions or packages and so on and so forth. All this is coming together in one package, and then we'll implement it gradually.
Yeah. Thank you. My last question, relating to the heavy investment announcement in data center by the Chinese company over the past week. I understand that True Corporation is not directly participate in data center, but since your online B2B is also improving, so may I ask in what angle that you may see benefits on True Corporation from, let's say, much, much fast growing in terms of data center investment in Thailand? Which business segment kind of? Thank you.
Yes, you are right. True is not investing in data centers, and we will not do that either. That is done by the data center company that True is not an owner of. The benefits we have is that we then are reselling cloud capacity. So we get buying cloud capacity from the True IDC company, which is now rebrand to Arise data center company. So we are buying cloud consumption from there, and then we are reselling that in the B2B business. We think that there is a potential to do more of that, to sell cloud solutions to the business segments.
That's the business we are in, not building data center itself. I think we are well-positioned with not having to take the upfront CapEx burden in building the data centers, but rather let, what should I call it, a sibling company doing that, and then we can utilize then the capacity that they have to sell data or cloud solutions to our customers.
Line?
Say that again.
In cloud solution sales and things like that, in which line of revenue we will see that?
Yeah.
I can help that. That's in the line of online. If you see, there is this B2B part. That's the line.
Okay.
Thank you.
Any further questions, either online or from the room, Khun Pisut?
Yeah, because we have.
We have five minutes, yes.
Five minutes more. Yeah, okay. Try to finish all. The first thing is on the dividend, you know. If you paid THB 0.14 this quarter, if I time it by four, it's gonna be THB 0.56. You think if my number is that, it is too conservative for you? No, is it possible for you to achieve that or even exceed that?
That was a nice try. The only thing I can say is that we keep the guiding we have for this year of a 70% payout. We keep now that we're going to do this every quarter. In addition to that, we have also said that we want to be progressive in the actual payout. That's year-over-year, not quarter-over-quarter. Don't expect us to be progressive for every quarter, but year-over-year we will. More than that, I cannot say.
Yes. Thank you. My second question is about your content strategy, which is totally opposite to your competitors, you know. You lose the sport content to your competitors, and you are trying to build your original content, you know, couple of things, right. Just want to understand your underlying strategy and what gonna be the outcome between two of you with the different content strategies.
First of all, we have not lost the sport content. Yes, we do not have the English Premier League, but we have several other sport content. I think we are still the biggest in terms of sport content in the country, apart from the football in England. Our strategy is to position ourself much more with local Thai content. And that's why we are launching again the Academy Fantasia as an example of that. The Voice Thailand is another example of that. Also more local Thai series. We think that if we can do that's a good way for us to compete with those foreign platforms, being Netflix or some of the others. That is our strategy.
We are in the middle of implementing that strategy now. We are also in the middle to find a better model of actually monetizing that in the mobile business. One thing is what we can do through TrueVisions and TrueVisions Plus, also the OTT app. We should also be able to upsell this in the mobile business. That's not something we really have done in the past. I see a big opportunity to do that. That's our strategy.
Also, we are the exclusive providers of beIN in the country. Thank you.
Yeah. Yeah. My last question is on for you, Khun Sigve. As the management of Arise, when you look into True Corporation as your subsidiary, you position it as a growth company or the cash cow, the dividend pay, for you, for Arise to spend, to invest in, you know, new technologies? Thank you.
I don't think that telecom operators or carriers, to use other word, are growth companies anymore. That's why it's very important for us now to have a clear dividend policy. I don't wanna give any names on that, but we do want to grow revenues, we do want to grow EBITDA, and we do want to grow the dividend or the net profit. I think that's the way I would frame True as such. Having said that, I think True has an excellent position as a having the as a platform company, having the connectivity platform, which you can put then things on top of.
In that sense, I think True has an advantage with working together with other companies in Arise or in the CP Group, whereby we can take our synergies and put those synergies, applications, and products and services on top of the connectivity platform that we have. That's where I think that True can grow further with what we don't see on the connectivity services I talked about, but also where the whole ecosystem combined can benefit out of it.
Thank you, everyone. We are out of time. We need to end now. It has been a pleasure. Please get in touch with us if any of your questions are unanswered today. Thank you once again for joining us, and we'll see you next time.
Yeah.
Thank you.