SHAREHOLDER PROTECTION
SET chief: No political interference in bourse
Vijit says stock exchange has its own rules in place to support operations
Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) chairman Vijit Supinit yesterday affirmed that politicians would not interfere in the stock exchange because it has its own laws to support its operations. The radical change in the political scene will not lead to any changes at the country's bourse, he said. "It is a good opportunity to revise some regulations that are now impeding capital-market development. The laws governing retail shareholder protection and good governance have already been proposed and those enabling commercial banks to sell debt instruments and securities will be proposed next," he said. Vijit was appointed SET chairman by the Thaksin administration, which was ousted by the September 19 military coup. After a new Cabinet is established, Vijit said that Thailand's gross domestic product next year would rise 5 per cent. The SET index by the end of this year would reach 750 points and head to 800 points next year, he said. SET president Patareeya Benjapolchai said that new prime minister General Surayud Chulanont's policy to concentrate on a sufficiency economy would not have any impact on the stock exchange's five-year plan to boost market capitalisation to Bt10 billion by 2010, double the current capitalisation. Another top agenda item for the SET is increasing the proportion of local institutional investors from 10 per cent to 20-30 per cent in the next five years, to stabilise the stock market. The exchange plans to recruit international companies to list on the market by 2009, and increase the free float (the amount of shares in companies held by minor shareholders) on the bourse to 40-50 per cent, she said. The SET will ask state enterprises and companies with low free-float rates to increase their about their free-float ratios to 40-50 per cent by reducing major shareholders' stakes to less than 50 per cent, said Patareeya. Total Access Communication Plc by the end of this year is expected to emerge as the first dual-listed Thai company. "We will arrange a meeting with the Federation of Thai Capital Market Organisations to discuss additional emergency agenda items," she said. Siriporn Chanjindamanee The Nation
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