Wichai Thongtang, a veteran investor, vows a turnaround of Cable Thai Holding (CTH), his latest venture, in 3-5 years despite heavy investment plans during the period.
"The local cable TV business is promising, particularly driven by a larger customer base following the Asean Economic Community in 2015," said the former lawyer.
"I'm fascinated by CTH's business model...how it spans the country and was set up by many local cable operators, a rare phenomenon in business."
CTH was founded by 300 local cable TV operators in 2009, mainly as a platform to provide quality content and share the costs of importing international programmes among shareholders.
Mr Wichai, now chairman of Prasit Patana Plc, the operator of the Phyathai Hospital Group, spent eight months studying the feasibility of the investment. The deal was brokered by Kittsanan Ngamphathipong, a former executive from Nokia and Advanced Info Service, who is instrumental in drafting CTH's future business strategy.
Mr Wichai announced on Tuesday he had teamed up with Vachara Vacharapol, CEO of Trend VG3, to take a 25% stake each in CTH. Mr Vachara is the third generation of the founder of the family-owned Thai Rath Thai-language daily, the largest newspaper in Thailand.
CTH planned to raise registered capital to 1 billion baht from 300 million baht.
Mr Wichai is also in talks with four potential partners including GMM Grammy chairman Paiboon Damrongchaitham, to take a 20% stake in CTH.
CTH operates 16 TV channels and aims to expand to 120 channels within this year, with monthly service charge of only 350 baht.
The company plans also to spend this year 5 billion baht to upgrade to digital, enabling local cable TVs to provide web-based and video on demand (VOD) programmes.
A major portion of spending would come from loans and suppliers' credits.
The upgrade is due to be completed and up and running in November this year.
The company will invest up to 20 billion baht from 2012 to 2016.