Thai Shin Sat to get India licence, stock rises

BANGKOK, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Thailand's Shin Satellite SATT.BK has been told it will receive a licence from the Indian government to import equipment for its key IPSTAR satellite, a company official said.

The construction of IPSTAR ground terminals in India would begin shortly and the company expected to launch services in India in the third quarter, the official quoted executive chairman Dumrong Kasemset as telling analysts on Tuesday. The news sent Shin Sat shares up to a four-month high of 10.80 baht, but it slipped back to 10.50 baht, up 2.94 percent at 0415 GMT, when the main Thai index .SETI was up 0.11 percent.

India is one of Shin Sat's top targets along with China, where the company is in talks with telecoms operators to provide IPSTAR services, and could use up to 17 percent of the satellite's capacity.

IPSTAR, which has a capacity of 45 gigabytes per second (Gbps), 20 times higher than conventional satellites, contributed almost 30 percent of Shin Sat's revenues in 2007 and the proportion was expected to rise this year, the company has said.

The $400 million IPSTAR, the world's largest broadband satellite, provides high-speed Internet and telecoms services.

Shin Sat, which operates five satellites, was founded by ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, whose relatives sold their controlling stake in Shin Corp SHIN.BK, which owns 41 percent of Shin Sat, to Singapore's Temasek Holdings [TEM.UL] in 2006. ($1 = 32.21 Baht) (Reporting by Khettiya Jittapong, Editing by Michael Battye)