Advanced Info Service Plc (AIS) said yesterday its mobile-phone concession would remain unaffected by the investigation into the status of Kularb Kaew Co Ltd, regardless of the results.

"TOT [which awarded the concession] has informed us that the concession contract contains no term that demands AIS remains a Thai legal entity to be further eligible for the concession," said president Wichian Mektrakarn.

Wichian said AIS had asked the TOT whether the Commerce Ministry's investigation into whether Kularb Kaew was a nominee of Temasek Holdings, which took over Shin Corp Plc in January, would affect the concession.

He said the TOT replied that the conditions in the concession contract did not require AIS to be a Thai-owned company.

"We haven't done anything in violation of the concession contract. And if Kularb Kaew is proven to be a nominee, AIS would not be affected under the contract.

"If there's any impact, it would originate from other legal contexts," he said.

Since the beginning of the year, AIS's share price has swung wildly, from a peak of Bt114 on January 5 to Bt79.50 on June 21.

Its shares ended yesterday at Bt90, down Bt1 on the day before.

"It has been unclear as to what would happen to AIS following the investigation into Kularb Kaew," said one telecom analyst.

"Investors fear there could be a change in the shareholding structure, so they should avoid both AIS and Shin [the parent company]."

The Commerce Ministry's fact-finding panel started its investigation into Kularb Kaew on Wednesday.

It resolved to expand the scope of the investigation to cover Aspen Holdings, Cedar Holdings and Cypress Holdings - which indirectly and directly own Shin Corp.

The panel is also looking to answer the question of whether the investigation results would lead to the nullification of the Shin Corp takeover.

It has been speculated that if it is proven that Kularb Kaew is a nominee, AIS's mobile-phone concession will be revoked and it will have to return the additional phone numbers granted by the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).

A legal source at the TOT said that after examination, it was found that the AIS concession contract just states that the concession holder must be a juristic person. It did not specify whether this could be a Thai or foreign national.

"Furthermore, the change in Shin's shareholding does not affect the AIS concession, since AIS's juristic status has remained unchanged," the source said.

However, it remains unclear if the TOT will revoke AIS's concession contract if the alleged nominee case is proven true.

"Once the Commerce Ministry finishes the investigation, we'll submit the AIS concession [contract] to be examined by the Attorney-General's Office, and we'll see what we have to do after that," the source said.

Wichian said he had met with AIS employees and told them that what was happening was a problem for Shin shareholders and had nothing to do with AIS.

He said NTC conditions for allocating new phone numbers to the telecom firms states clearly that the firms must be Thai-owned.

"Therefore, if we're found to be mainly foreign owned, the NTC may have the right to take the phone numbers back from us," he said.

The NTC recently approved the allocation of an additional 500,000 mobile-phone numbers each to AIS, Total Access Communication (DTAC) and True Move.

Market leader AIS has more than 17 million subscribers.

Usanee Mongkolporn

The Nation