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Published on February 25, 2008

The Financial Insti-tutions Development Fund is selling its stakes in 33 unlist-ed companies to individuals or institutional investors, as its controversial sale of property on Ratchadaphisek Road is still under the legal process.

"We're directly introducing the stakes to interested investors. Former shareholders [of these companies] can also buy the stakes," the FIDF's manager Tongurai Limpiti said last week.

She was confident that the Bank of Thailand's rescue fund could eventually get rid of all the remaining companies before it shuts down in four years, even though it had failed to sell them many times.

The FIDF's return on investment in the companies runs at 5-10 per cent.

The 33 companies include hotels, hospitals, financial firms, developers and service providers, with Thailand Securities Finance Corp (TSFC) as the most interesting choice.

Someone could gain control of the company with the 28-per-cent stake to be sold by the FIDF, Tongurai said.

The FIDF chief added that TSFC provided a 21-per-cent return to the fund last year.

Siam Tin Plate, a Thai-Japanese joint venture, pays out high dividends, she added. The company produces zinc- and chromium-coated steel at its plant in the Map Ta Phut Industrial Estate.

Banchang Group, once owned by Piroj Suwachavee, has 677,650 shares up for grabs.

Interested parties can buy more than one company, but they must buy all the shares available in each.

Thaifilatex, a maker of natural rubber thread, has the most shares on sale, at 1.57 million.

The FIDF inherited many companies after it took over 56 now-defunct finance companies during the 1997 financial crisis.

The rehabilitation of the finance companies and commercial banks hit by the 1997 crisis cost the fund about Bt1.3 trillion, placing huge financial burdens on the Finance Ministry and the Bank of Thailand.

The sale at auction of the Ratchadaphisek site worth Bt720 million to Pojaman Shinawatra, the wife of then prime minister Thaksin, has put the FIDF in the political hot seat.

The FIDF has said the ministry does not need to issue the remaining scheduled government bonds worth Bt87 billion because the fund did not run a further loss.

Anoma Srisukkasem

The Nation