Egat Plc will call a board meeting on Friday to consider buying back shares from employees, following the uncertain future of the company's listing plan.

Nakhon Chomphuchart, a lawyer representing consumer alliances, said yesterday that the Supreme Administrative Court is prepared to hear the case on Monday. "We expect the court to hand down a verdict in April at the latest," he said.

Deputy Energy Permanent Secretary and acting chairman of Egat Norkhun Sithipong said the company should buy back the shares at par value of Bt10, the price at which it sold them in November.

"We also need to discuss the possibility of Egat winning the Supreme Administrative Court's approval to go ahead with the listing. Employees should then be allowed to subscribe to the shares at par value or at the initial public offering price quoted for general investors," he said.

He noted that in buying back the shares, Egat would be responsible for employees' loans and interest burdens incurred from borrowing money to finance share purchases.

Interest from the Bt5 billion in loans is estimated in the hundreds of millions of baht.

In November, ahead of the stalled IPO, Egat sold 510 million shares to employees at Bt10 each. To finance the deal, employees borrowed from Egat Cooperatives as well as financial institutions. While interest is calculated on a daily basis, as of November this year, they are obliged to repay one third of the loans.

Santhad Jiranuwat, a senior official for accounting, said that Egat is in talks with the Revenue Department on tax issues.

Egat proposed the Bt10 buy-back price so that neither the company nor the employees incurred any gains from the transaction. The Revenue Department should also return taxes collected from the employees on the difference between the par value and the IPO price.

"In the future, if Egat's listing plan resumes, employees should also be able to resubscribe for the shares. Given that we are buying back the shares, this means the sale effectively did not take place," Santhad said.

He noted that the Revenue Department has yet to reply to the tax request.

Last week, Egat conducted a survey via its website to find out if employees are still interested in the investment. Employees could indicate whether they wanted to hold the shares or sell them back. A source from the Energy Ministry said people were divided on the issue.

Those who want to keep the investment expect a dividend of at least Bt0.75 per share - an amount higher than bank deposit rates. The other group foresees difficulties in proceeding with the share listing within the next one to two years. They want to sell the shares to the company with a plan to buy them back when the listing plan resumes.