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Shin Corp executive committee chairman Somprasong Boonyachai agrees with this assessment, yet in an interview with telecom reporters he tried to stay cool.

"Don't worry. We have Plan B for this," he said without elaborating, despite pressure from reporters.

The Shin group was certainly elated when knowing that, at a mock-up auction, its subsidiary Advanced Info Service (AIS) won with a bid of US$173 million (Bt5.76 billion).

The auction is gaining momentum, and even major shareholders want to attend. But it remains in question how Temasek Holdings, the biggest shareholder of Shin, will do so.

Foreign ownership is a critical issue. ICT Minister Ranongruk Suwanchawee expressed concern about this after learning from a TNN (True News Network) report of Shin Corp's huge foreign ownership. She is apparently becoming more focused on the issue, as well as other developments in the telecom sector - like the mobile virtual network operators (MVNO) scheme. Her interest is clear, even though she wrongly referred to the project as "MVNA".

So, what will Somprasong do?

Finally, after some glasses of wine, he agreed to reveal the plan for how he would escape the disaster if an AIS bid were to fail.

"Plan B? All of us will join the early-retirement programme," he said with a big laugh.

Shin has for some time had a programme that it urges those aged 55 or more to retire. So far, the programme has attracted only Damrong Kasemset, an executive director. It is quite a coincidence that the deadline for the scheme remains unknown.

Somprasong indeed is not qualified in terms of age. But as the reporters observed, he remains cool about what might be ahead.

There is a Thai adage, fa mee ta, which means "heaven knows who deserves justice". Having helped the company - which has been battling since Temasek's participation - with his best efforts, Somprasong deserves something better than early retirement. How about 10 more years of service?