The delay of its planned initial public offering this year means DTAC will not be able to benefit from a 5-per-cent reduction in corporate tax.

Listing on the Stock Exchange of Thailand this year would have qualified DTAC for the reduction, from 30 per cent to 25 per cent, for the next five years in line with Finance Ministry incentives to encourage Thai companies to list on the bourse.

DTAC chief financial officer Petter-Borre Furberg said the fact that it could not list this year in order to get the tax reduction had no substantial impact on the company.

According to its filing to the Singapore stock exchange last Friday, Singapore-listed DTAC still intends to launch its IPO on the SET, although the listing will not happen this year.

DTAC submitted an application to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the SET in October seeking their approval to trade shares on the SET, meaning it would have a dual listing in the Thai and Singaporean stock markets.

Under SET regulations, Ucom has to be delisted from the local bourse within six months of DTAC's listing. However, DTAC

is not yet able to conclude a "satisfactory delisting plan" with Ucom this year.

"The board of directors of the company will put the issue to a shareholders' meeting, which is likely to take place in the first half of 2007," DTAC said in a statement to the Singapore exchange.

DTAC's planned listing in Thailand was approved by shareholders last November. In October this year, DTAC revealed that it would float 44.4 million shares in the IPO. The country's second-largest mobile phone operator will issue 16.4 million new shares with a par value of Bt10, and Ucom will sell another 28 million DTAC shares.

DTAC will use the proceeds from the IPO for working capital and the general affairs of the company.

Ucom's 28 million ordinary shares to be offered in the IPO were equivalent to 6.11 per cent of DTAC's current total shareholding and are worth about Bt4.199 billion.

 DTAC chief executive Sigve Brekke yesterday denied speculation by industrialists that the delayed listing was because the company wants to wait for the result of the government's probe into several companies for breaching the country's foreign business law relating to nominees.

Among the deals on the list of investigations are the takeover of Shin Corp in January by a group led by Singapore's state investment arm Temasek Holdings, and the takeover of Ucom by a group led by Telenor Asia last October.

Ucom currently owns 43.13 per cent of DTAC, while Telenor Asia holds 32.6 per cent. Thai Telecom Holdings, which is 49 per cent owned by Telenor Asia, owns 58.69 per cent of Ucom, while Telenor Asia owns 29.83 per cent.

DTAC has 11 million mobile-phone subscribers, or about 31 per cent of the market. It has registered capital of Bt5.1 billion, of which Bt4.58 billion is paid up.

DTAC's share price closed at US$4.10 yesterday in Singapore, up by 1.5 per cent, while that of Ucom closed locally at Bt44.75, down from Bt45.75 on Friday.

DTAC posted revenue of Bt43.198 billion and a net profit of Bt4.611 billion last year.