Egat Plc's board yesterday resolved to buy back shares from its staff after 63 per cent of those surveyed expressed a desire to sell back the stock amidst uncertainty over the company efforts to initiate an initial public offering.

The decision reflects growing concern that the Supreme Administrative Court will block the state-run Egat listing. The court on Monday will start hearing a complaint filed by a consumer group to freeze the listing, which was originally scheduled for last November. When the court accepted the complaint, it ordered the listing delayed pending an outcome of the case.

Norkhun Sithipong, acting Egat chairman and deputy permanent secretary of energy, said the Egat board resolved at yesterday's meeting to assign officials to discuss the share buy-back with the Revenue Department next week.

They will discuss how staff will be reimbursed for the withholding tax they paid in advance on capital gains on their shares. They were required to pay capital gains taxes on the difference between what they paid for the shares and the expected IPO listing price.

Norkhun said that in a survey conducted over seven days earlier this month, 9,600 employees of the 15,336 interviewed - virtually all of the work force - said they wanted to sell back their shares.

Monday's hearing follows a petition from a consumer group seeking to terminate Egat's listing. Norkhun said he couldn't say when the court would render a decision on the case.

He also said that Egat would try to reimburse staff who had paid withholding tax on stock purchases before the court ruling. The discussion with the Revenue Department is urgent because the deadline for the annual tax document submission is on March 31.

Egat will also ask the financial institutions that granted loans for Egat employees to buy shares to give them a special interest rate.

He added that the nearly 6,000 Egat employees who said they didn't want to sell back their shares were anticipating a Bt0.75 dividend per share that will be paid in May. Those who don't want to sell their shares back would not have to. The next shareholders' meeting will be held on April 20.

Norkhun said that Egat employees who sold back their shares would be entitled to once again buy Egat shares if the court decides to allow Egat to float its shares on the stock exchange.

A source who participated in the Egat board of directors meeting said the board's ruling suggested that Egat's listing plan was going back to square one. The plan also does not mix well with the current political climate. Even if Egat decides to go ahead with its plan, it will take at least one or two years before Egat - the state enterprise in charge of electricity generation - will be able to conduct the initial public offering, the source opined.

In November, in preparation for the IPO, Egat sold 510 million shares to employees at Bt10 apiece. To finance the purchases, many employees borrowed from Egat Cooperatives as well as financial institutions. Interest is calculated on a daily basis.

Egat earlier proposed a Bt10 buy-back price so that neither the company nor the employees would incur any gains from the transaction.

Yesterday's board meeting also approved a salary hike of 5 per cent for Egat employees, retroactive to October 1 2005.

The Board also approved the construction of a 500-KW electricity transmission line from Suwannakhet in Laos to Thailand's Mukdahan province in preparation for the second Nam Thuen Dam in Laos.