Any Thaicom sales hinges on mutual consent: Arak
Whether telecom holding company InTouch, formerly known as Shin Corp, sells its shares in satellite operator Thaicom to anyone depends on the mutual consent of the seller and the buyer, not on the will of the buyer alone, Energy Minister Arak Chonlatanon,
Infobahn, founded by former Thaicom chief executive officer Dumrong Kasemset, last month sued InTouch, Thaicom and eight co-defendants for allegedly not honouring the agreement for InTouch to sell 41.14 per cent of Thaicom to Infobahn at the proposed price of Bt13 per share.
Pijak Siripoonsap, who owns 1,000 Thaicom shares, is the second plaintiff.
Arak said that as far as he could remember, Infobahn did make such an offer but it was rejected by InTouch.
Members of InTouch’s board of directors are eligible to make a decision on any key matter, since InTouch is Thaicom’s major shareholder, he said.
Somprasong Boonyachai, executive chairman of InTouch and an InTouch director at that time, said recently that he had no idea about any share agreement.
By the rules governing listed companies, if any such agreement is reached, the listed company has to report it to the Stock Exchange of Thailand, he said.
Both Arak and Somprasong are defendants in the civil lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, the share-purchase agreement was reached around last July. Infobahn also wrote to InTouch’s chairman Virach Aphimeteetumrong in August to make the share-purchase offer.
InTouch replied in September that after thorough discussion among its senior executives, it had decided not to proceed with Infobahn’s proposed transaction on grounds that Thaicom was its key asset.
Infobahn then had its lawyer write to Virach on September 26 expressing its concern over Virach’s swift and informal rejection of the offer.
Thaicom’s stock closed down 3.03 per cent yesterday at Bt16, while InTouch fell 0.43 per cent to Bt58.
