Thaicom unruffled by lawsuit
Thaicom and its Cambodian telecommunications operator Mfone are conducting business as usual, despite the court action by former Thaicom CEO Dumrong Kasemset aimed at acquiring a majority of its shares and to suspend any attempt to sell Mfone shares to ot
“This has no impact on Thaicom. We are running our business as usual, including Mfone,” Thaicom chief executive officer Suphajee Suthum-pun said.
Satellite operator Thaicom owns 51 per cent of Shenington Invest-ments, which owns 49 per cent of Lao Telecommunications and 100 per cent of Mfone. Shenington reportedly plans to divest some shares in Mfone to other parties to leave the brutally competitive Cambodia market.
An industry source said a Saudi telecom firm and one in Malaysia were among those interested in buying Mfone shares.
Mfone ended last year in third place in terms of market share, with 723,860 subscribers.
It was granted a 35-year concession by the Cambodian government to operate telephone services from 1993 to 2028.
Last month Infobahn, founded by Dumrong, filed a civil suit to oblige InTouch, formerly known as Shin Corp, together with Thaicom and eight other defendants to honour an agreement to allow Infobahn to purchase the 41.14 per cent of Thaicom shares held by InTouch.
The lawsuit also asked for a civil court order to suspend Thaicom’s reported attempt to sell shares of Mfone to other parties.
The lawsuit claims that a Thaicom share-purchase agreement had been reached between InTouch and Infobahn. However, high-ranking InTouch executives said they were not aware of any such agreement.
