One of Cambodia’s primary telecommunications companies, Cellcard, announced yesterday that longtime Chief Operating Officer Kay Lot has resigned.

The departure of Kay Lot follows the departure of CEO David Spriggs who resigned his position about two months ago.

Telecommunications industry insiders say the otherwise healthy and profitable mobile operator is struggling to make payments on bank loans, in an atmosphere of increasing competition from other operators and ever-changing technology.

Cellcard Chief Executive Officer Ian Watson confirmed Kay Lot’s resignation.

“We thank Kay Lot for his exceptional services and leadership to Cellcard, and we are sorry to see him go,” said Cellcard CEO Ian Watson. “However, we recognise that Kay Lot’s decision to resign is a normal part of the human resource cycle and we wish him well in his future endeavours.”

Owned by Kith Meng’s Royal Group, Mobitel, which is now referred to by the brand name Cellcard, started out as a partner of global telecommunications company Millicom until it was bought out by Royal Group, which became 100 per cent owner in late 2009. Long regarded as a very profitable company, Cellcard today faces increasing competition in Cambodia’s highly crowded telecommunications market.

Industry insiders say overall telecommunications market revenues have fallen in recent months because of vigorous competition and price reductions between the mobile operators. Many offers are known to have been made by rival telecommunications companies seeking to acquire each other.

“Cellcard is a multi-layered company with plenty of management capability and depth of expertise, and while Kay Lot will be missed we are confident that the company will maintain its leadership position in the mobile phone sector,” Watson said.

Kay Lot was COO for four years. Prior to that he served as chief financial officer. He said Cellcard was well positioned in the market.

“Working with Cellcard has been an immensely rewarding experience and I will be leaving with positive feelings. I am confident that the company will continue to succeed and make positive contributions to Cambodia. We have a great team here and they will continue to live up to our customers’ expectations,” said Kay Lot.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stuart Alan Becker at [email protected]