Shin chief executive Boonklee Plangsiri is the major gainer among Shin executives following the tender offer.

Boonklee Plangsiri, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinwatra's wingman, along with the five other principal Shin Corp executives, pocketed Bt1.2 billion from selling Shin shares to Temasek Holdings

via the tender offer, according to the Securities Exchange Commission.

Boonklee, Shin's chief executive officer, received the biggest windfall from the sale as he made a profit of Bt924.1 million by unloading his shares to Singapore government-linked Temasek. The SEC released this report as Temasek completed its takeover of Shin, taking 96 per cent of the shares of the Thai telecom giant on Tuesday.

Analysts meanwhile have warned small shareholders not to buy Shin shares if they want to avoid investment risks given the current uncertainty surrounding the

firm.

During the tender offer period from February 2 to March 9, Shin shareholders sold shares to Temasek at Bt49.25 apiece and subsequently reduced the ratio of shares floating on the market to less than 4 per cent, raising the question of whether the company has to be delisted.

The Stock Exchange of Thailand requires a listed company to have at least 15 per cent of shares floating on the market, but the ratio of Shin stock on the market has been reduced to only 3.7 per cent.

An analyst from Syrus Securities Co Ltd said he believed Shin would have to be delisted from the exchange.

"Although the Stock Exchange of Thailand will give the new shareholder time to fix the free-float problem within 12 months, I believe that eventually Shin will have to be delisted because the free-float ratio at present is too low," the analyst said.

"He added that it was not necessary for Shin to continue its listing on the market because the company has other affiliates listed on the exchange.

Shin stock yesterday ended at Bt42 apiece, up Bt1 from the previous close.

The same analyst said he would not advise investors to buy Shin shares even though the price has gone down, because the stock is now illiquid.

Shin executives on Wednesday reported to the SEC that Boonklee had sold 18.76 million shares; Somprasong Boonyachai, vice chairman of the group executive committee, had sold 2.058 million shares; Siripen Sitasuwan, group chief financial officer, 1.835 million shares; Arak Chonlatanon, chairman of the executive committee, 970,675 shares; Niwathamrong Boonsong-paisan, group vice chairman of the group executive committee, 478,446 shares;

and Anek Pana-Apichon, vice president for finance and accounting, 321,440 shares.

A total of 24.429 million shares worth Bt1.203 billion were sold. Boonklee made Bt924.108

million; Somprasong, Bt101.37 million; Siripen, Bt90.418 million; Arak, Bt47.81 million; Niwathamrong, Bt23.56 million; and Anek made Bt15.83 million in addition to the sale of 10,000 units of warrants at Bt28.75 apiece, or Bt287,500.

Shin's sale to Temasek sparked public anger that has snowballed into regular street protests against Thaksin. It has also raised concerns about foreign ownership of a company that has key interests in telecommunications, satellites, media and aviation.

An analyst from Asia Credit Securities said investors should avoid buying shares now because of the low ratio of free-float shares.

Nonetheless, Sopawadee Lertmanaschai, executive vice president of the Stock Exchange of Thailand, earlier commented that if Shin stock had to be withdrawn from the market it would affect the market capitalisation of the exchange because Shin stock represents a large portion of its overall capitalisation.

She said the SET would not adjust the market-capitalisation target from the original goal of Bt10 trillion in five years because what has happened recently would dent the overall market value only in the short term.

Shin's market capitalisation stood at Bt123.96 billion on Wednesday.

Siriporn Chanjindamanee

The Nation