The persistent strength of the baht has shaved 2.5 per cent off Jutha Maritime's revenues but its US dollar-denominated debts have partially offset the effect on the company's results, its managing director Chanet Phenjati said yesterday.

Chanet said that if the baht had appreciated by Bt1 from the beginning of this year to now, the company would have lost revenues of about Bt23 million per year.

 "However, the company has gained due to its foreign-currency debts, and the stronger baht has not had an adverse impact," he said. "Our US-dollar debts account for 40 per cent of the total debts and the rest are baht debts."

"We would like to keep this currency debt ratio because we don't want to rely too much on any particular currency debt after our experience from the baht flotation [in 1997]," he added.

The baht has gained 13 per cent from Bt41.015 since December 30 last year, and this has raised serious concerns among exporters that they will lose competitiveness.

Jutha plans to lower its debt-to-equity ratio from 3.23 times at the moment to 1.5 times next year by using its profit to repay its debts.

The company has forecast that its revenues next year will grow by 27-28 per cent from Bt780 million this year, said Chanet.

"We will achieve our revenue target of Bt780 million this year, but our revenue growth next year will depend on the foreign-exchange rate and whether we can buy two vessels as planned. If we can do so, our revenues will rise by 27-28 per cent," he said.

He said the company's projected net profit of Bt79 million this year would be an improvement on last year.

Its nine-month net profit was Bt159 million.

Given that it now has accumulated profits of Bt97 million, the company's board will decide in February whether to pay an annual dividend for 2006, after skipping dividends for the past nine years.

Chanet forecast that the company's gross margin next year would be the same as this year's, at about 37 per cent.

He said the company's four contracts to lease vessels, which will arrive next year, would be renewed and the charter rate would be raised by 5-6 per cent to about US$7,000 (Bt250,000) per vessel per day.

The company said its joint venture with Denmark's Nordana Project & Chartering would still follow its three-year plan to buy 10 vessels worth a total of $100 million.

Jutha Maritime holds a 51-per-cent stake in the joint-venture company.

About 70 per cent of the estimated sum required to buy the vessels will be borrowed and the remainder will come from the joint venture's working capital, he added.