• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

PTT Says Land Expropriated for Pipelines Remains in Public Hands

Posted on: Tuesday, 4 April 2006, 12:00 CDT

By Bangkok Post, Thailand

Apr. 4--Any plots of land expropriated under the Petroleum Authority of Thailand Act were not transferred to PTT Plc after the state energy company was privatised, according to PTT's chief financial officer.

Pichai Chunhavajira said yesterday that the company had paid rent to the Treasury Department to use state property according to a lease agreed on between the two parties.

As well, he said, PTT Plc had conformed with the State Enterprise Corporatisation Act when it went private and it had consulted with the Office of the Council of State about its rights and powers.

The transfer of public land to a private firm was one of the factors cited by the Supreme Administrative Court for revoking Egat Plc's plan to go private.

Today the independent consumer protection group, the Federation of Consumer Organisations, is scheduled to ask the court to revoke PTT's listed status after successfully filing against Egat's application to list on the stock market.

The consumer group is also poised to accuse some committee members of conflicts of interest related to PTT's privatisation five years ago. It has also claimed that PTT should not possess land for natural gas pipelines.

The federation claims that the company should have divested its natural gas pipeline operations to allow competing oil exploration companies to use them, and that the result of not doing so was increased energy prices.

PTT had stated in its initial public offering (IPO) prospectus to investors that it intended to spin off its pipeline operation.

However, Mr Pichai maintained that PTT's IPO in 2001 abided by the principles of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Stock Exchange of Thailand and international rules of practice.

At that time, PTT and the Finance Ministry put 591 million shares up for sale, which were worth a total of 20.66 billion baht for domestic investors.

A total of 330 million shares were snapped up by individual investors when PTT and its underwriters -- Kasikornbank, Bangkok Bank, Krung Thai Bank, Bank of Ayudhya and Siam Commercial Bank -- made the shares available on an online system through 2,500 bank branches across the country.

That enabled PTT to allot shares to more than 10,000 general investors and sell 261 million shares to mutual funds, said Mr Pichai.

Mr Pichai said the privatisation of PTT conformed with all the rules, a position he could back up with documents for examination if necessary.

The chairmen of the three committees -- Pongphol Adireksarn, Manu Leophairote and Parinya Nutalai -- were all free from conflicts of interest, according to Mr Pichai.

-----

To see more of the Bangkok Post, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.bangkokpost.com.

Copyright (c) 2006, Bangkok Post, Thailand

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: Bangkok Post

More News in this Category