Charuphan Intararoong, the SEC's corporate affairs director, said IEC was still under examination together with other stocks. But Sumit Champrasit, executive chairman of IEC, said he expected the SEC to drop the case, as "there were no grounds to it" and the case seems to have disappeared.

IEC is also considering withdrawing legal charges against the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) that sought compensation from the SET and its executives.

The company believes it has already received justice after a court ordered protection for IEC and prohibited the SET from banning net settlement and margin loans for trading in its stock.

IEC's board will meet to discuss the issue at the end of this month.

"We've talked earlier at a board meeting about dropping the case against the SET and other parties. We got fairness at a certain level and we don't want to ruin the overall atmosphere some more. Personally, this is a time for reconciliation, not conflict," Sumit said.

Over the past year, IEC petitioned for court protection after the SET prohibited net settlement and margin trading for the company's stock. The court ordered the SET to retract its order.

The SET has publicly declared that 33 groups of investors were suspected of manipulating IEC stock. IEC complained to the court that the SET's statement had sabotaged its recapitalisation plan and sued the SET for Bt3 billion in damages.

SET president Pattareeya Benjapholchai said the SET was studying imposing net-settlement and margin-trading restrictions on stocks with high turnover or risk.

Siriporn     Chanjindamanee

The Nation