The Supreme Adminis-trative Court released an appeal decision yesterday ordering its lower court to review an administrative case that could see Shin Corp lose its licences for communication satellites, mobile phone services and television broadcasting.

"The judicial review against Shin Corp is warranted because the licences in question involved com-munication services which can impact on the public, national security and consumers," the senior court said in its verdict.

The ruling follows a decision by the Central Administrative Court in March not to hear the case because complainant Sastra Toaon, a law lecturer, had no contractual link to the Shin takeover.

Sastra launched the litigation after the family of ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra sold the tele-com giant to Singapore's Temasek Holdings in January.

He said the sale violated the foreign ownership law after Temasek increased its equity stakes in Shin from 49 per cent to 96 per cent.

The new ownership structure had allowed an alien business to gain control over the operations of Shin Satellite Plc, Advance Info Service (AIS) Plc and iTV Plc, all of which are subsidiaries of Shin, he said.

Sastra petitioned for a court order instructing three concerned agencies - the Information and Communications Technology Ministry, state-run TOT Plc and Prime Minister's Office, to revoke concession agreements signed with Shin Corp.

The Supreme Administrative Court ruled for the judicial review to commence - and ordered Sastra to refrain from speculating on the judicial proceedings of the case.

After the decision, Sastra also asked the court for a provisional order to prevent Temasek earning any benefits from the three companies' licences.

Under administrative judicial procedures, the three agencies will have to present their respective defence arguments in 30 days out-lining why they continue to enforce the concession agreements despite the ownership changes.

Somchai Thean-Anant, acting president of TOT Plc, which grants the mobile-phone concession to AIS, said the state agency already had legal experts prepared to cope with a court hearing on the case and possible legal impacts.

Earlier, TOT said its concession contract did not specify that the concessionaire must be majority owned by Thais. It just required the concessionaire to be a juristic body.

Kraisorn Pornsutee, permanent secretary at the ICT Ministry, which owns Shinsat's satellite concession, said he would call all relevant parties to discuss the matter and prepare information for the court.

After the court's decision to proceed, AIS president Wichian Mektrakarn said the case was a matter for Shin Corp shareholders. He said AIS had not broken any law.

The legal proceedings cover AIS, Shin Satellite, and iTV. AIS is now Shin's flagship business, contributing nearly 90 per cent of the

holding company's revenue. If stripped off the licences, AIS would be a skeleton company, given that nearly all its revenue comes from mobile-phone services. In the second quarter, its booked service income of Bt18.42 billion, and Bt4.13 billion in net profit.

Temasek's take-over of Shin Corp has led to claims that AIS, Shinsat and iTV are now Singaporean firms. Currently, Cedar Holdings and Aspen Holdings, which are both linked to Temasek, own 54.53 per cent and 41.76 per cent, respectively, of Shin.

The court case adds to the pressure on Temasek, which also faces a police probe into whether Kularb Kaew, Cedar, Aspen and Cypress Holdings are nominees for a foreign entity and thus breach the Alien Business Law.

Shin now owns 41.34 per cent of ShinSat, which has four satellites - Thaicom 1, 2, 5 and iPSTAR. ShinSat won a 30-year-concession from the Transport Ministry in Sept 1991.

Shin, which purchased 17 per cent of iTV in May 2000, now owns 52.93 per cent of the free-TV operator.

Shin also owns 42.8 per cent of AIS, which has over 17.5 million subscribers. AIS won a 20-year-concession from TOT in March 1990.

Thai AirAsia, which also operates with a local licence, narrowly escaped being part of the case after Shin unloaded its 25 per cent in the airline to Asia Aviation Co Ltd. Asia Aviation was a joint venture between Shin and a logistics businessman.

Kesinee Taengkhieo

The Nation