"We don't need a strategic partner, but only investor groups with no interest in sharing our management rights," Supachai Chearavanont commented amid the ongoing rumours about proposals from foreign telecom giants.

True is the only local telecom giant with no foreign strategic alliance. The leading cellular operator Advanced Info Service (AIS) has Singapore Telecom as its strategic partner, while Norway's telecom giant Telenor is the strategic partner of the second-largest operator, Total Access Communication (DTAC).

Supachai denied the rumour that True had been approached by Telekom Malaysia for a possible share acquisition. Despite a huge debt of Bt85 billion, the group still has revenue coming in, Supachai said.

More important, he added, was that True had already achieved 50 per cent of the process of creating "service synergy" within the group, which is aimed at lifting its competitive edge.

True was founded by the agricultural conglomerate Charoen Pokphand (CP). Its businesses range from fixed-line telephone services, cellular, Internet access services and pay television.

When asked whether True was interested in acquiring shares of Shin Satellite (ShinSat), Supachai said he did not think it was necessary at this time.

"We can offer our convergent telecom and broadcasting services without the need to bring in satellite technology. Some investment bankers approached us to buy into ShinSat but we're not interested in that," he said.

The Temasek Holdings-led group, which controls Shin Corp, has reportedly considered selling some of Shin's businesses and will keep only the cellular flagship AIS. Among Shin's businesses are ShinSat, free-television operator iTV and budget airline Thai AirAsia.

Supachai also strongly denied that True was creating group synergy in order to grab a bigger share of the telecom market at the expense of small operators. "We are just proceeding according to the vision and plan. We've adopted the convergence strategy because nobody has ever done it before," he said.

He thinks that charges of having a market monopoly are unfair, given that True is not the largest telecom company and its portfolio does not cover everything in the telecom sector. The group has more than 22 million subscribers and posted consolidated revenue of Bt56.623 billion last year, of which 72 per cent was from voice services.

Parent CP has also been criticised for monopolising the fresh-chicken trade, but Supachai argued that CP had only 20 per cent of the market.