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Published on December 18, 2007

The bank has already agreed to sell its 19.3-per-cent stake to the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

The act will make the sale possible because it raises the shareholding ceiling for foreigners to 49 per cent from a current 25 per cent.

Bangkok Bank is required by the central bank to release ACL shares to comply with the one-presence rule. President Chatri Sophonpanich said yesterday it would ask the Bank of Thailand (BOT) if it could delay until the second half of next year.

The bank expects the request to be granted.

Chatri did not think the delay would require a change in the agreement made with the Chinese bank because it did not include a time frame.

The delay will be the second for this share sale. It was delayed in the early part of this year when the BOT demanded the shares be sold by June. Bangkok Bank was unable to meet that deadline. As a result, the bank has to pay the BOT charges until such time as the sale has been completed.

Chatri told BOT Governor Tarisa Watanagase last week that the new deadline of the end of December could not be met.

Somruedi Banchongduang

 The Nation