Banpu sure of appeal success

“With these reasons, the company and its subsidiary have no need to set the provision in the financial statements for the damages as stipulated by the judgement,” Somruedee Chaimongol, chief financial officer, said in a statement to the Stock Exchange of Thailand.
The move in effect broke the free fall in the company’s stock. It added Bt8 to Bt400 and closed at Bt399.
On the day after the Civil Court’s September 20 ruling that Banpu must pay compensation to Siva’s group, its stock immediately lost Bt38.
Brokerages said the provisioning of about Bt33 billion would immediately push Banpu into a net loss this year.
Banpu said that after consultation with legal advisers, the company had been firmly assured that there are both factual and legal grounds to appeal the judgement. It said it had been advised that it and its subsidiary would, in no circumstances, be held liable for the damages for information, investment and expenditures, and also in no circumstances, be held liable for the opportunity loss of the Hongsa project of the plaintiffs that had been earlier terminated by the Laotian government.
Banpu’s board of directors and management decided to appeal the ruling. Last month the Civil Court ordered Banpu to pay damages to its former partner in the Hongsa project.
Siva and some of his companies including ThaiLao Lignite, Hongsa Lignite, ThaiLao Power and South East Asia Power had sued Banpu and its management for allegedly deceiving them into signing an agreement for the sole purpose of gaining access to information on a coal mine concession and feasibility study.
The plaintiffs demanded total damages of Bt63.5 billion.
Banpu denied the allegations and said there were no grounds for the claim.
The court found in favour of the plaintiff and ordered Banpu to pay damages of Bt33 billion in instalments – Bt4 billion for the first year plus interest, Bt860 million per year from 2015-27 and Bt1.2 billion per year from 2028-39.