Preechaya Ibrahim’s remarks followed News Network Corporation (NEWS) allegedly telling some media organisations that NMG executives had damaged the company over the matter.

At the AGM on April 29 last year major shareholders from both sides of the alleged takeover – Suthichai Yoon and Sermsin Samalapa from NMG as well as new NMG shareholding group NEWS and its allies – were prohibited by the then-NMG chairman Nittimon Hastindra Na Ayudhya from voting to ensure fairness.

Preechaya said Nittimon had suspected the conduct of some major shareholders might not comply with laws and regulations regarding takeovers, so he exercised his authority as chairman to block them from attending the meeting to protect the interests of the company and its minor shareholders.

On April 30 last year the Stock Exchange of Thailand asked NMG to clarify the case.

Six days later NMG told the SET that as Nittimon had learned a group had acquired the company’s shares with the intention of taking over the business, and given he suspected their actions did not comply with relevant laws and regulations, he barred the group’s members from attending the meeting.

It was reported that the new group of shareholders had claimed Suthichai and Sermsin, individual shareholders of NMG with a significant number of shares, had held those shares in a manner that did not comply with the laws and the regulations governing takeovers.

Barred from casting votes

Nittimon therefore did not allow Suthichai and Sermsin to cast votes at the meeting to ensure fairness, as the new group of shareholders was not allowed to attend the meeting.

In a filing to the SET on Tuesday, NMG said it was revealed at Phra Khanong Provincial Court the day before that the Court of First Instance had ruled the 2015 AGM void. However, the company has not yet received the full details of the judgement and is in the process of doing that.

NMG’s board of directors will meet this month to consider this matter.

The company has the right to appeal the judgement to the Appeal of Court and the Supreme Court if necessary.

Preechaya said if NMG were forced to nullify the results of the AGM, the company might hold a new shareholders meeting to allow shareholders to cast votes on necessary items.

He denied reports that NMG executives would face heavy punishments as a result of the court ruling.

Minor NMG shareholder Panya Chattanrasamee said Nittimon was right to bar both groups from the AGM.

He said he had more trust in the company’s old shareholders, who were media professionals, than the new shareholders as he did not know them.

Narindej Thaveesangpanich, deputy managing director of the company, which was established in 1987, said the five-year plan had been divided into two phases, with the first taking three years and the second two years for implementation.

“Given that our own product brand, altron, only had a presence in the domestic market until recently, OEM business for both domestic sales and exports is now playing a vital role in our revenue, in a ratio of 30:70 [altron/OEM]. What we need to do at the moment is to focus on ‘Building Strength Within’ under our first-phase plan,” he said.

“We will promote altron to grow continuously in the domestic market, as well as tapping business opportunities in neighbouring countries like Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. We aim to expand the base firmly within the CLMV area, and then move it further into other potential markets in Asean,” he explained.

Narongdej said that in parallel, the OEM export team would secure and grow major channels in South Asia, which represents the main contribution of the company’s overseas sales.

The deputy MD said that as in the ultimate goal for the next five years, Thai Habel Industrial would aim to strategically grow the business in a more sustainable way by having the majority of sales derived from sales of the altron brand, both domestically and regionally.

This would also minimise risk from price dumping and the intensity of competition in OEM business from China and other rivals around the world.

Headquartered in Bangkok, Thai Habel Industrial operates two manufacturing facilities – in Prachin Buri and Nakhon Pathom – with more than 10,000 square metres of combined space.

In 2015, a year after a fire at the Prachin Buri factory, sales were around Bt400 million, of which 25 per cent were from exports.

Ninety-eight per cent of the export value was from South Asia, and the reminder from Indochina.

Most of the domestic sales came from the modern trade channel, for which the company produces exclusive brands.

“Though our company is almost 30 years old, altron is still considered a very fresh brand in the Thai market… Once we steadily set our footstep here, we shall then go for the regional market, where we will firstly target neighbouring countries.

“In fact, implementation of the Asean Economic Community has already impacted our business. Basically, I’m humbly looking at Indochina only, as Thailand is most likely the centre of Indochina. As such, we would get more opportunity not only to be a distribution centre, but also a manufacturing base in this sub-region, thanks to the geographic advantage of Thailand – not to mention being the transportation hub for the CLMV region,” Narindej said.

“Brands which are looking for an OEM facility would probably look for the right place to produce and distribute their products, and particularly so for those brands that already have markets in the region,” he said.

Narindej said that for OEM purposes, the company was currently developing its manufacturing facilities to a higher standard, in order to serve more international brands and those with special requirements.

“Expansion will come at a much later stage, or when capacity has reached its maximum. Investing abroad is not yet in our plans, except that it would always be a back-up plan if the people cost/minimum wage went beyond an affordable level,” he said.

The company has no plans at this time for listing in the stock market, as building the altron brand and generating sustainable sales revenue are the current priorities.

“We are now concentrating more on recovering our company from the losses incurred from the 2014 fire. Getting our company listed would remain a long-term goal, but not one expected for the near future,” Narindej said.

Recently, seven of 22 existing digital TV operators submitted a letter to the junta seeking relief, by allowing them to defer the payment of the third instalment of the upfront licence fee, but there has been no response so far.

Yesterday, Natee Sukonrat, chairman of the Broadcasting Committee at the National Broadcasting and Telecommuni-cations Commission (NBTC), held an urgent conference to confirm that all digital TV licensees must comply with the broadcasting regulation by paying the third instalment of the licence fees within the set deadline.

“If any of them fails to show up by next Monday, the NBTC has to issue collection letters to order them to pay those fees with an annual interest rate of 7.5 per cent within a centain period perscribed by the committee,” Natee said.

In this round, the NBTC expects to receive total revenue of about Bt9.26 billion inclusive of value-added tax, paid by 24 terrestrial-based digital TV broadcasters. Of total figures, about Bt3.94 billion will be from seven digital TV licensees under high-definition (HD) variety category; around Bt3.19 billion from seven digital TV licensees under standard-definition (SD) variety category; approximately Bt1.81 billion from seven digital TV licensees under SD news category and the rest of about Bt377 million will come from three family channels.

Early this year, the NBTC had revoked Thai TV Co’s two digital licences – a news channel and a family category – after it refused to pay the second instalment of upfront licence fee last year. However, Bangkok Bank, the financial guarantor of Thai TV Co paid the amount on behalf of its clients.

Bangkok Bank is reported to have taken the responsibility for the new round of payment for its client as well. According to the NBTC, Thai TV has to pay a total of Bt384.344 million for the third instalment of licence fees. Of the total amount, Bt260.651 million will be for its news channel while the remaining Bt123.692 million will be for its family channel.

So far, Mono Broadcast, the operator of Mono 29 digital television channel, has already paid the third instalment of the upfront licence fee, totalling Bt440.84 million inclusive of the value-added tax, to the broadcasting regulator.

Mono 29 became the second digital TV licencee to make the payment after Bangkok Broadcasting and Television, the operator of Channel 7HD in the digital terrestrial TV system, paid Bt559.61 million last week.

Speaking on behalf of BEC-Multimedia, a digital TV licensee, Surin Krittiyaphongphun, the executive vice president of Bangkok Entertainment Company, operator of Channel 3 analog, said BEC-Multimedia will certainly be making the payment before the deadline.

AIS said the fee payment regulation is unfair as it set a minimum fee payment unlike the previous regulation that did not set a minimum payment. The previous rule had applied in the cases of True Move and Digital Phone Co for using the 1800MHz spectrum after their concession ended on September 2013, while the current rule applies to AIS.

The company sent the letter to the NBTC on Tuesday that it was willing to pay this fee under the previous rule.

On December 18 last year, AIS had filed a case with the Central Administrative Court against the existing regulation.

On May 10, the NBTC had demanded Bt125 million from AIS for using the 900MHz spectrum since last October, when its concession ended, till March 31 this year. AIS was required to pay within seven days of receiving the NBTC letter. The money would be transferred to the state coffers.

Recently AIS was allowed by the National Council for Peace and Order to extend the deadline to switch off its 900MHz services to June 30 this year from the deadline of April 14 set by the Central Administrative Court.

Under the NBTC’s new remedy period regulations, AIS has to initially transfer such spectrum-use fee during the remedy period to NBTC at a rate not lower than its concession fee in the last year of service operation.

After this initial payment, AIS will also have to pay a similar fee to the NBTC again based on the remaining revenue after deducting expenses.

According to the AIS concession contract, AIS paid 30 per cent of total revenue to TOT from its post-paid cellular service and 20 per cent from its prepaid cellular service.

But the Bt125-million payment is based on the rate of prepaid service concession fee of 20 per cent as all its existing users during the remedy period are in the prepaid service.

The NBTC last year asked True Corp to pay a similar fee, as its subsidiary TrueMove had continued to provide the service on 1800MHz |to customers until November 2015 after its concession ended in September 2013.

The total fee for the period from September 2013 to July 2014 totalled Bt1.069 billion.

However, both parties have yet to settle the final amount that TrueMove has to pay.

Amnuay Preemonwong, deputy permanent secretary at the ministry, said the SAC and the Office of the Auditor-General (OAG) had intentionally concealed important information from the public when the SAC held a press conference on May 10 to accuse PTT of not fully returning the gas pipeline, and state officials of negligence in performing their duties in accordance with a Cabinet resolution made on the issue on December 2007.

Amnuay, who is one of the defendants, said the Supreme Administration Court had set the guidelines that PTT should return the pipeline assets – those that could not be constructed without utilising state power prior to PTT’s partial privatisation – to the state, |and had assigned the finance and energy ministries to work out the details.

The ministries subsequently decided to order PTT to return only its onshore pipeline system to the state, he pointed out.

“The OAG has raised the question of why the Supreme Administrative Court took just one day to consider the case after PTT submitted the conclusion reached to the court. But we had reported progress to the court nine times, prior to the conclusion,” he stressed.

Amnuay said four or five lawsuits had been filed with the court over the past several years, and every time the court’s ruling was that the required pipeline transfer had been completed.

Verdict reached

“If we don’t believe the court, who else can we believe? The OAG can have its opinion if there has been no resolution. But in this matter, the court has already reached its verdict,” he said.

“Do the executive, judicial and legislative powers have to come under the OAG?” the official said.

Moreover, he said the OAG and SAC had also intended to conceal from the public the fact that the Supreme Administrative Court held the plenum session of its judges on April 7 and made a ruling that the PTT had already returned the assets in accordance with the court’s earlier resolution.

“Another important fact is that the OAG is the auditor that has unconditionally approved PTT’s financial statements all along, despite the OAG having always protested that PTT did not fully return its assets.

“This means the OAG has provided false information to the SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission] and shareholders of PTT, which is a severe breach of ethics for which somebody has to take responsibility,” he asserted.

Auditor-General Pisit Leelawatcharopas told the media on May 10 that the SAC agreed with the findings of the OAG that the return of the pipeline system to the state by PTT did not comply with the ruling of the Supreme Administrative Court, which should include the offshore pipeline system worth about Bt32 billion.

Seeking to clarify this matter, Amnuay said that unlike the onshore pipeline, for which PTT had expropriated the land for laying down the pipeline, the subsea pipeline system – like other offshore infrastructure such as submarine fibre-optic cable, offshore platforms, and ports – had been built without utilising state power, or undermining the rights of the public.

The carrier will fly direct from Bangkok to Tehran three times a week (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) from June 22, and from Bangkok to Muscat – also three times weekly (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday) from June 28.

Both routes are being introduced with a special promotional fare starting at Bt2,990 for economy-class seats and Bt9,990 for premium flat-bed business-class seats.

Thai AirAsia X expects to serve 1.1 million passengers in total this year, with an 80-per-cent loading factor.

It also predicts 80-per-cent growth in revenue, from Bt5.4 billion posted last year, and 2016 is expected to be the first year the airline has made a profit. Nadda Buranasiri, chief executive officer of Thai AirAsia X, said the new Middle East routes represented an important milestone for the airline, making it the first Thai low-fare carrier to fly to the region.

The additions offer great convenience by directly connecting Don Mueang International Airport to the Iranian and Omani capitals, with three flights a week for each destination, he said.

The airline is confident that the two cities, with their great travel and investment potential, will prove popular among Thai travellers, he added.

The new destinations also fit in with the strategies of the government and the Tourism Authority of Thailand, which call for increased penetration of new markets, especially smaller ones.

The airline will use its low fares to expand its customer base and has plans for even further market expansion, the CEO said.

Nadda also views the new Thai AirAsia X routes as an opportunity to attract Middle Eastern travellers to Thailand via Iran and Oman, making the two countries gateways to Bangkok.

“Thailand has been recognised by people in Oman and Tehran as a hub for leisure and medical tourism. They are big spenders with tremendous growth. We expect a [passenger] ratio of 80 per cent from foreign travellers and 20 per cent from Thais,” he explained. The number of inbound travellers from Iran is anticipated at about 100,000 per year, with 130,000 visitors travelling from Oman yearly.

Nadda said Thailand was already a popular destination for Iranians and Omanis, especially in terms of tourism, medicine and healthcare – segments in which visitors from those markets spend an average of Bt6,500 per day/person while in the Kingdom.

“Iran as a travel destination offers a unique civilisation that Thai tourists will be thrilled to explore. Under its ‘Ancient Elegant’ concept, the country presents artefacts and architecture of great value. “Oman, meanwhile, is a place for adventure and is full of hip and chic experiences, making it perfect for Thai people who have yet to go on a desert journey. We are sure tourist numbers from Thailand to both Iran and Oman will grow satisfyingly,” the chief executive said.

Tehran and Muscat will be Thai AirAsia X’s fifth and sixth destinations respectively, after Seoul, Tokyo, Osaka and Shanghai.

Via cooperation with Thai AirAsia, passengers can use the budget carrier’s Fly Thru service to reach both cities from Phuket, Krabi, Hat Yai, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Khon Kaen and Surat Thani viaDon Mueang after a single check-in, and with baggage checked through to the final destination.

Travellers from Iran and Oman meanwhile, can use Fly Thru to reach across Thailand and to destinations that include Singapore, Yangon, Siem Reap, Ho Chi Minh City, Chongqing, Macau and Tokyo.

Thai AirAsia X will operate its flights to Tehran and Muscat with Airbus A330-300s, offering 12 premium flat-bed business-class seats and 365 economy-class seats on each aircraft.

Following the global trend that has been observed for a few years now, Thai talent also prioritises and seeks out employers whom they perceive to have a strong culture and attractive working environment.

Topping the list, among males and females, are employers perceived to offer friendly working environments. Culture and employer attributes that Thai talent rates highly are ‘leaders who’ll support my development’, ‘creative and dynamic work environments’ and ‘respect for its people’.

Achieving work/life balance is a desire that’s now synonymous with the millennial generation, especially at its younger end, as is represented by this global online survey that covers 57 countries including Thailand. Globally, 1.3 million students took part in the survey, including nearly 8,000 in Thailand.

When asked about important goals after graduation, 42 per cent of students surveyed selected “work/life balance” as one of their top three career goals, making it the most selected of all choices. This was followed closely by “to be secure or stable in my job” (40 per cent) and “to have an international career” (38 per cent).

According to Universum, this desire is however a lot less strong in Thailand compared to other markets. Indeed, it is the lowest of all Southeast Asian markets surveyed, including Malaysia (62 per cent), Singapore (66 per cent), Indonesia (53 per cent) and Vietnam (46 per cent). This was also the first time this career goal topped the list in Thailand.

Although still second overall, job security has fallen from first to second among engineering talent and second to third among business talent. This indicates an increased feeling of job security since last year, which is likely connected to increased political and economic stability during the same period, Universum said.

The strong desire for an international career has climbed from fourth to second in importance among Thai business talent and from eighth to third among Thai engineering talent. Hence Universum warns it could be a double-edged sword for employers in Thailand, as offering international assignments and opportunities will help to win the hearts of top talent. However, there will be a legitimate fear of “brain drain”, with the best talent seeking opportunities outside of the country.

Salary expectations in Thailand are growing faster among male undergraduates, and the gap in expectations between genders is widening.

In the space of a year, male undergraduate salary expectations have risen to more than Bt47,000 to an annual expected salary of Bt522,116, an increase of 10 per cent.