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After a creditors' meeting on January 14, TT&T announced that they had selected the company as planner under the country's bankruptcy laws by a vote of 55 per cent.

The vote was undertaken after TT&T had earlier filed a rehabilitation petition with the Central Bankruptcy Court.

The secured creditors, holding more than Bt19 billion of the roughly Bt23 billion in debt acknowledged as of September 30, 2008 on the company's interim financial statements reviewed by KPMG Phoomchai Audit, are now crying foul.

A spokesman for the secured creditors committee told The Nation that at the last minute the TOT had put in a claim for Bt30 billion with the Official Receiver.

"It was totally out of the blue and we were shocked that TT&T officials did not object to the liability," the spokesman said.

Even though the Official Receiver refused to accept Bt8 billion of TOT's claim, he did acknowledge and permit an additional Bt22 billion as TT&T liabilities.

With the Official Receiver acknowledging TOT's additional liabilities of Bt22 billion, TT&T's total liabilities were now Bt45 billion instead of about Bt23 billion as reflected on TT&T's interim financial statements of September 30.

"This allowed TOT to control the voting for TT&T's planner," the spokesman said.

TOT voted its liabilities - Bt22 billion plus an existing Bt514 million previously reflected in TT&T's financials - and selected TT&T's management as the company's restructuring planner.

The secured creditors, including local financial institutions such as Kasikornbank, Krung Thai Bank and Government Savings Bank, foreign banks such as Goldman Sachs and Bank of America as well as several investment funds, are said to be furious.

"TT&T's fixed-line network could not have been financed without funding from the secured creditors," the spokesman told The Nation.

Interestingly, almost 100 per cent of the secured creditors voted for P Planner, a company headed by Pisit Lee-ahtum, a former TT&T CEO.

"If TOT's debt was maintained at Bt514 million as reflected in the September 30 financials, P Planner would have received 88 per cent of the planner votes," the spokesman said.

 TT&T's tacit acknowledgement of an additional Bt30 billion in TOT liabilities may invariably also anger vocal minority Stock Exchange of Thailand shareholders that have in the past few months supported selecting the company as planner. They believed that if the company were selected, they would be successful seeking "haircuts" from the secured creditors, thus increasing the value of their shares.

However, the current revelation and apparent acceptance of an additional Bt30 billion in liabilities owed to TOT is expected to trigger a minority-shareholder uproar.