The widespread public outcry over the sale of Shin Corp shares to Temasek Holdings has raised grave concerns from companies with Singaporean shareholders.

It has also  been instrumental in several major investment deals between Thai and mainly Singaporean companies being put on hold, a source in the financial market said yesterday.

The source said the current conflict and dissent had apparently recently delayed the acquisition deals of two locally listed property firms, namely Golden Land Property & Development and SC Asset Corp, by Singaporean buyers.

SC Asset is the real-estate arm of the Shinawatra family.

The source said TCC Capital Land, a joint venture between Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi and Singapore's CapitaLand - a property arm of Temasek - had planned to wrap up the Golden Land deal last month.

Temasek, on its own, was also planning to buy shares in SC Asset.

"These [moves] have been delayed following protests against Singapore investment," said the source.

He said the buyers were considering the ramifications of going ahead with the deals.

Yesterday, Sompong Tancharoenphol, vice chairman of the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI), said three key business associations would postpone their scheduled meeting on March 14.

He declined to say whether the cancellation was due to an anti-government rally planned for that day.

Kiatpong Noichaiboon, another vice chairman of the FTI, said the bodies had called off the meeting as they were sensitive to need to avoid doing anything that might exacerbate the current political tension.

The decision came a day after civil groups submitted a letter to the Singapore Embassy, demanding that Temasek cancel the Shin deal.

On Tuesday, protesters also called for a boycott of Singapore products and on firms that had links to Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Meanwhile, Teerachon Manomaiphibul, senior executive director of Property Perfect Plc, hoped its subsidiary Krungthep Land, which recently entered into a partnership with a privately run Singapore firm, Fraser & Neave, would not be affected by the negative sentiment.

"Their projects are aimed at the high-end, where such sentiment is limited," he said.

Teerachon said the Krungthep Land-Fraser tie-up was cautious about the current conditions and was adopting a wait-and-see policy before expanding investments here.

Temasek also maintained a careful stance.

When asked by The Nation for Temasek's view on matters concerning its Shin Corp deal and about rumours of its cancelling the deal, the company's director of corporate communications Eva Ho replied in an e-mail, saying: "We have no comments to offer at the moment. I will contact you again if we have any comments to make."

Some Thai executives said the anti-Singapore sentiment was unfair.

Subhak Siwaraksa, chief executive officer of TMB Bank, which is 18 per cent owned by DBS Bank (Singapore), said: "If any Singapore or foreign company had damaged the country's economy or environment, the protests would have been justified."

But the current outcry, he added, only confused foreign investors.

Jira Supachayanont, vice president for corporate affairs at United Oversea Bank (Thai) - which is 97.45 per cent owned by UOB Bank (Singapore) - agreed.

He said the bank's shareholders held a long-term investment goal for Thailand and were not involved with politics. In fact, UOB is a non-governmental financial institution.

Kwanchai Modpradit, director for marketing of Capital OK, the consumer loan provider that is 40 per cent owned by DBS Bank of Singapore and 60 per cent owned by Shin Corp, said the firm had not committed no sin in having a Singaporean as a major shareholder.

"We are confident our customers realise this. The protesters should not cause much impact on our operations," he said.

At the same time, Tasapon Bijleveld, chief executive officer Thai AirAsia, said the firm - which is 50 per cent owned by a joint venture of Shin and Thai investors - said: "We're operating as usual. Our major shareholders are sorting out the problems."

An executive of Advanced Info Service Plc yesterday said despite threats by some groups to boycott Shin products, AIS would continue to provide a quality service to customers.

"We're a cellular operator, so we remain neutral. We know we have both kinds of customers - those who oppose us and those who support us," he said.

AIS has more than 16 million subscribers.

After noting that it was listed for boycott, BNH Hospital issued a statement saying the company is operated by BNH Medical Centre, whose shareholders "have no involvement" with any Singaporean investors.

"BHN has been dedicated in providing medical services to Thai and foreign patients and we will further maintain standards and ethics," said Kritwit Lert-utsahakul, managing director.

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