The 20 with voting rights have outstanding loans of Bt59 billion, but BTS has a total of 28 creditors claiming debts of Bt77 billion.

Deutsche Bank (London) is the largest creditor, with total loans of Bt24.48 billion as of last Thursday, of which Bt16.17 billion is principal and Bt8.31 billion interest.

Others include state-owned Thai Asset Management Corp, with loans totalling Bt6.77 billion; the InteLista Group, Bt6.5 billion; NFS Assets Management, Bt1.43 billion; Italian-Thai Development, Bt906.43 million; Siam Advisory, Bt710 million; SCB Securities, Bt12.02 million; and Siam Commercial Bank, Bt54.64 million.

Siemens is owed Bt433.69 million, Avenue Asia Special Situation Fund TLP, Bt2.7 million; Tanayong, Bt964.79 million; and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, Bt100.81 million.

The creditors had been expected to vote today on the Skytrain operator's business rehabilitation plan, but on Monday the Central Bankruptcy Court instructed BTS to regroup its creditors, postponing the vote.

Earlier, Thai Asset Management, together with three other creditors, proposed rejecting the existing plan, because it provided for creditors to be split into groups, a move that it claims is unfair.

The court also ordered BTS to add the value of its remaining 23-year concession, as well as deposit accounts from its operations, into collateral, in order to provide bigger repayments for creditors. The value of the remaining concession is estimated at Bt20 billion.

BTS's existing plan, conducted by plan administrator and chairman Keeree Kanjanapas, provides for the restructuring of Bt67.77 billion in debts out of a total of Bt77.73 billion.

BTS will have to reduce its capital by as much as 90 per cent to write off retained losses of Bt20 billion.

The company will then increase its capital by issuing 13.8 billion shares with a par value of Bt1 apiece within 180 days of the capital reduction, with an option to extend that period for another 180 days. However, the plan does not indicate clearly who would buy the capital-increase shares or at what price.

Its creditors have also been offered a debt-to-equity deal in which some parts of their debts could be converted into shareholdings at Bt15.80 a share.

BTS's financial statement for fiscal 2006, which ended March 31, showed its revenues amounted to Bt3.07 billion, of which Bt2.8 billion came from fares, Bt211 million from rental space for advertising and shops, Bt17 million from public utility services and the rest from other sources.

The Skytrain operator's total revenues were Bt2.82 billion in 2005 and Bt2.5 billion in 2004.

BTS plans to go public next year after its creditors approve the company's business rehabilitation plan.

Siriporn Chanjindamanee

The Nation