Boonklee told more than 200 top executives in a group meeting last week that he was not planning to resign from Shin at this time but would focus more on his role on the board. He declined to elaborate.

Boonklee is Shin's executive chairman and chief executive. The roles of these posts are delivering policies and executing policies.

A Shin source said Boonklee's move would pave the way for his successor as chief executive. Speculation has it that the post will be taken by Somprasong Boonyachai, CEO of Shin's cellular flagship Advanced Info Service (AIS).

Somprasong is currently vice chairman of Shin's executive committee for human resources.

Shin's board of directors is due to meet on Thursday, when it is expected the new line-up for top management will be announced.

Boonklee told high-ranking executives in the group as long as three years ago that they had to look for their successors.

AIS is also expected to announce a new top management team soon after Shin's management is restructured. There are three heavyweight candidates to succeed Somprasong, including AIS president Wichian Mektrakarn, chief technology officer Vikrom Sripatuk and chief marketing officer Sanchai Tiewprasertkul.

The former two have a strong engineering background, while the latter is the company's marketing veteran. None of them has a background in finance. AIS has around 20 million subscribers.

The family of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra sold its controlling stake of almost 50 per cent in Shin to a group led by Singapore's state investment arm Temasek Holdings in January 2006 in a deal worth Bt73.3 billion. A subsequent tender offer saw the group take over 96 per cent of Shin.

The government is investigating whether Kularb Kaew acted as a nominee for Temasek in the deal.

Usanee Mongkolporn

The Nation