Pernec, Katchi to invest RM25m in payphones

Pernec PayPoint Sdn Bhd, together with Katchi Group Sdn Bhd, will invest RM25 million over the next three years to reinvent payphones in Malaysia.

This will be done through the newly launched, Pernec Katchi City
Mix phone booths, in what is also a quest to innovate the payphone business.

City Mix is a newly-designed phone booth combined with scrolling and static advertising panels as well as Wi-Fi signal relays.

Pernec's Chief Executive Tengku Asmaluddin said the company anticipates City Mix booths to contribute about 10 per cent to revenue for the financial year 2012.


"We expect a one per cent contribution to revenue in the fourth quarter of the financial year ending December 2011," he told reporters after the ceremony to launch the City MIx phone booths here today.

He said Pernec Katchi's initial investment for the 3,500 sites would roll out 1,000 City Mix booths in the first year, followed by another 1,000 in the second and 1,500 in the third at various locations nationwide.

Pernec, the operator of Helo Payphones and a subsidiary of Pernec
Corporation Bhd, has 40,000 phone booths nationwide, all of which are potential sites to be turned into a City Mix booth.

Currently, there are about 12 million payphone users monthly. He said the City Mix phone booths which pioneer its foray into the media industry, would introduce the first communications channel that can create a nationwide campaign within 72 hours.

It would, he added, generate the first advertisement revenue for Pernec. "We have targeted the advertisement business to contribute RM3 million to the revenue year with an increase of 20 per cent to 30 per cent annually for the three-year period.

"Meanwhile, our payphone business currently generates an average of RM50 million annually, and we hope to maintain this for the next three years following stiff challenges because of the advancement of mobile communication," he added.-- Bernama