BAY announced the postponement of the deal with the GE unit as a result of last week's coup.

"Due to a change of the current situation, on September 28 the bank and GE Capital International Holding Corp agreed to postpone the sale period for the first lot of new ordinary shares," BAY said in a report to the Stock Exchange of Thailand.

The share sale and the registration of the increase in paid-up capital will be postponed to January 10, from the previously scheduled date of October 10.

BAY had earlier planned to sell 2 billion shares to the GE unit. The first batch of 1.39 billion shares - a 24.5-per-cent stake in the bank - would have been sold at Bt16 each, or about Bt22.24 billion.

GE announced yesterday it was still "positive" about the proposed deal, which would see its unit buying a major stake in BAY.

The postponement was "just to give more time to assess the situation", said Paradai Theerathada, a spokesman for GE in Thailand and vice president for communications at GE Money Thailand.

Charlotte Dhonavanik, first senior executive vice president of BAY, commented yesterday that GE would like to take time to assess the situation as last week's coup was a significant development.

"BAY is still waiting for GE. We are not currently talking with other candidates," Charlotte said.

Bank of Thailand Governor MR Pridiyathorn Devakula said yesterday that the postponement of the deal was not a concern.

"There will be no problem," he said. "After the situation settles for one month, these foreigners will come back."

BAY's stock price yesterday fell 3.37 per cent on the news to close at Bt17.20.

Seamico Securities said yesterday that in the short-term, some selling of the bank's shares was expected following the announcement of the postponement.

"BAY's current price remains lower than Bt18.50, a fair value that does not reflect the GE deal. In addition, if BAY's share price drops significantly from this news, we view this as a good opportunity to buy," Seamico said.

The securities firm quoted BAY's management as saying that after the political situation is back to normal, they believe the deal will go through.

The bank said in its report to the exchange that GE Capital International Holding Corp would consider and submit confirmation of its share purchase by October 31.

BAY said the number of shares to be sold to GE and the agreed selling price for the first lot would not be changed.

The two parties have not finalised a clear time frame for the sale of the second lot, BAY added.

However, BAY chairman Krit Ratanarak said last week that the price at which the remaining 609 million shares would be sold could vary, depending on the period over which GE makes the purchase.

The offering has been divided into two instalments in order to avoid violation of the 49-per-cent limit on foreign ownership in the bank.

BAY's shareholders approved the share-sale plan on September 20, just one day after the coup.