However, the securities watchdog said it wanted TPI to quickly produce its consolidated second-quarter financial statement, secretary-general Thirachai Bhuvan1at-naranubala said.

As the company had shown it could not currently control the actions of its subsidiaries, and that its auditors had already endorsed its first-half earnings statement, the SEC decided to accept the financial statement, Thirachai explained.

SEC assistant secretary-general, Chalee Chantanayingyong said that TPI's first-half earnings statement excluded the earnings of some of its subsidiaries.

TPI has lost control of its six subsidiaries including TPI Oil and TPI Aromatics since the Central Bankruptcy Court on April 26 overturned an order to rehabilitate TPI and these subsidiaries under a single plan.

Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) president Patareeya Benjapolchai said the SET would take one or two days before disseminating TPI's financial statement to the public.

The SET will lift the "C" (compliance) sign posted on TPI's stock later this month as the SEC was satisfied with the company's financial statement, she said.

A stock is posted with the "C" sign to show the company is under a business rehabilitation plan.

Meanwhile, PTT Exploration and Production Plc, Kasikornbank and SC Asset Corp Plc all scored grades exceeding 100 from the Annual General Meeting Assessment Project 2005, jointly launched by the SEC and the Thai Investors' Association, Chalee said.

The evaluation consists of four parts, the first and second have a top score of 45 each, and the third and the fourth 10 points each.

The SEC and the association jointly evaluated the procedures of 433 listed companies' annual general meetings held during March and April this year. The 433 did not include companies under business rehabilitation. Apart from the three companies scoring more than 100 points, another 225 firms were rated above 70. From the evaluation, the 433 listed companies had the lowest points on average in the first part - which covers procedures before the meeting.

However, Chalee believed they would do better in the next annual general meeting evaluation as some companies had already planned changes to their pre-meeting process shortly before they knew of the assessment.

The assessment was initiated after the World Bank raised corporate governance awareness for the Thai capital market in the area of shareholders' participation and protection.

Evaluations in the foreseeable future would move toward extraordinary shareholders' meetings, Chalee said.

Oranan Paweewun

The Nation