UPDATE 1-Thai True Corp Q1 net profit up six-fold

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BANGKOK, May 16 (Reuters) - True Corp TRUE.BK, Thailand's only fully integrated telecoms firm, reported a better-than-expected 562 percent rise in its first-quarter net profit on Friday, helped by large gains in foreign exchange.

True Corp, which has a majority stake in True Move, the third-largest mobile phone operator, said in a statement it made a net profit of 2.74 billion baht ($84 million), or 0.67 baht per share, compared with a 414 billion baht profit a year earlier.

The results was well above a 2.25 billion baht forecast by five analysts polled by Reuters.

True Corp, which runs a pay-TV business and is the main provider of high speed broadband Internet services, has said it expected 2008 revenues to rise 8 percent from 61.6 billion baht it made last year, pushed by mobile unit's operations.

Quarterly net profit was driven up by a 2.46 billion baht foreign exchange gain, when the baht strengthened against the dollar, up from the 1.24 billion baht gain in a year earlier, the firm said in a statement.

Service revenues rose 12 percent to 15.6 billion baht in the January-March quarter, helped by improving income from broadband internet business, the statement said.

True Corp, which has focused on bundled marketing packages for mobile, fixed line, Internet and entertainment services, expects about 37 percent of Thailand's 19 million households to use at least one True group service this year.

True Move, whose service revenues account for half of True Corp's, said it gained 368,190 net new subscribers in the quarter and now had 12.5 million customers, the statement said.

Its broadband customers rose 35,426 to 573,711 in the first quarter and it had 1.03 million cable television subscribers, it said.

True Corp, founded by the Chearavanont family of the Charoen Pokphand Group, Thailand's largest agribusiness conglomerate, competes with market leader Advanced Info Service ADVA.BK, and number two Total Access Communication DTAC.BK (TACC.SI).

Before the earnings announcement, True Corp shares fell 0.41 percent to 4.90 baht on Thursday when the main Thai index .SETI rose 0.79 percent. ($1=32.45 Baht) (Reporting by Arada Therdthammakun; Editing by Louise Heavens)