Ex-Thaicom CEO sues InTouch over alleged share deal

The civil lawsuit filed on April 23 is his serious attempt to take over Thaicom management and wrest back control over the satellite operator from Singapore’s Temasek Holdings so that it will be in Thai hands.
Thaicom, Energy Minister Arak Chonlatanon and InTouch executive chairman Somprasong Boonyachai were named as three of the nine co-defendants.
Dumrong worked with Shin Group for nearly 18 years, becoming one of its five top executives. Along with Arak and Somprasong, he helped Thaksin Shinawatra, who later became prime minister, establish the Shin telecommunications empire.
When contacted by The Nation, Dumrong declined to comment on the matter, saying he would speak only in court. The first hearing is scheduled for July 16.
Somprasong and Arak said they have yet to see the lawsuit. Somprasong said he had no idea about the existence of a share-purchase agreement.
According to the lawsuit, Infobahn, InTouch and Thaicom discussed the share purchase deal around last July.
The meeting resulted in an agreement between InTouch and Infobahn. According to the agreement, InTouch would sell 41.14 per cent of Thaicom to Infobahn at the proposed price of Bt13 a share. The deal would have been worth Bt5.86 billion at that price. The lawsuit cites Bt10.77 as the average price of Thaicom stock at that time.
Thaicom closed last Friday down 1.25 per cent at Bt15.80. The stock market was closed yesterday.
While Infobahn was arranging the share acquisition and received an expression of interest from Bangkok Bank to finance the transaction up to Bt5.9 billion, its offer was turned down, prompting Infobahn to file the civil suit.
Pijak Siripoonsap, who owns 1,000 Thaicom shares, is the second plaintiff.
The lawsuit also questions Shin’s shareholding structure, citing the case of the alleged use of nominees by Temasek to take over Shin. The case is still under police investigation.
If Infobahn were allowed to own Thaicom shares according to the agreement, Thaicom’s stock and management would have come under the control of Thai shareholders and those security concerns about foreign shareholding by Temasek would have been removed, the lawsuit said.
Temasek controls InTouch via Temasek’s affiliates Aspen Holdings and Cedar Holdings. As of last month, the two owned 41.62 per cent and 37.99 per cent of InTouch respectively. InTouch in turn owns 41.14 per cent of Thaicom.
The national-security issue was raised against the satellite operator from time to time after the Shinawatras’ joint disposal of 46 per cent of Shin to Temasek in January 2006. The now-defunct National Security Council, which toppled the Thaksin government in 2006, once remarked that taking back Thai satellites from the Singaporean operator was a patriotic duty of every Thai.
The Abhisit Vejjajiva government in 2010 showed interest in buying back Thaicom’s satellite business, citing national security concerns, but the idea drew opposition on several fronts over the cost.
In 2010, then-finance minister Korn Chatikavanij went to Singapore to meet with Temasek to discuss the satellite business’ impact on national security.
The uproar over national security related to Thaicom faded away after the change to the Yingluck Shinawatra government.
Somprasong said foreign control of Thaicom was not an issue, since 59 per cent of Thaicom is held by Thai shareholders. Thaicom operates under a concession from the Information and Communications Technology Ministry.