NBTC seeks more info from BBL on Jas’s failure to pay licence upfront fee

Bangkok Bank had provided a letter to the NBTC explaining its role in backing JASMBB’s bid for the licence.
Korkij Danchaivichit, deputy secretary-general of the NBTC, said yesterday that BBL’s letter did not explain why JASMBB failed to conclude a loan deal with the bank and what the total loan was that the company had requested from the bank.
JASMBB is a subsidiary of Jasmine International.
An NBTC panel set up to probe the missed payment as part of its claiming of damages from the company was given another month to turn in its investigation report, which was due yesterday.
The panel called in BBL and ICBC (Thai) Bank yesterday for questioning. However, BBL’s representatives did not meet with the panel.
The bank sent a letter to the NBTC on Wednesday confirming that Jas had sought financial support from the bank before and after its bidding for licences on the 1,800- and 900- megahertz spectra.
The bank said that last September, Jas informed it of its plan to bid for the two licences. If it won the bid, it would seek a loan to finance its business development.
Jas won only the 900MHz licence by bidding Bt75.6 billion. Then it contacted BBL about the loan.
BBL and Jas had discussed the possible loan conditions from January to March but failed to reach an agreement.
The letter does not say why they failed to reach a conclusion.
Pete Bodharamik, chief executive officer of Jasmine, has told the NBTC that while the company had almost clinched the deal with BBL, the bank on January 20 set a condition for Pete and his father, Adisai, a former education minister, to sign personal guarantees.
Pete could not accept this condition, which prompted him to stop the talks with BBL over the deal.
ICBC Thai’s representative did meet with the panel yesterday.
Korkij said JASMBB did not directly approach ICBC but sought financing from a fund in China, which later referred JASMBB to ICBC China, which then asked ICBC Thai to check the qualifications of JASMBB.
Pete has told the NBTC panel that after the discussions with BBL had come to nothing, Jas initiated talks with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), which offered to help if the company had a Chinese strategic partner.
The company then started looking for a partnership deal with Chinese companies, including China Telecom and China Unicom.
China Telecom, however, declined to be its partner.