D-Tac's award-winning CFO quits

Grant Ferguson is quitting D-Tac, Thailand's number two mobile operator, after three years as chief financial officer. He will be replaced by Petter-Bore Furberg, Ferguson's deputy in the finance team.

Ferguson helped steer D-Tac to its current strong position after Telenor, a Norwegian telecoms company, bought a 25% stake in the company from cash-strapped United Communication Industry. Along the way he twice won awards from FinanceAsia for best CFO in Thailand. His replacement, Furberg, also comes from the Telenor side of the business.

The company's most recent set of results, for the first quarter of 2004, were far in excess of analysts' expectations. Morgan Stanley's research team say the figures were 31% ahead of their forecasts. Local brokerage Tisco reckons the company will add 1.3 million new subscribers this year alone - when Telenor bought into the company it had just 1.1 million users in total.

Despite the successes of the past three years, Ferguson says he chose to leave as his contract expired. "Although there were many factor to consider on both sides, both parties feel that after all we have achieved in the past three years the time is right to move on," he says. "However, I have not yet decided where the future lies."