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Viewing cable 06BANGKOK5497, COMMERCE UPDATES ON INVESTIGATION INTO NOMINEES

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
06BANGKOK5497 2006-09-07 08:41 2011-08-25 00:00 UNCLASSIFIED Embassy Bangkok
VZCZCXRO3420
RR RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM RUEHNH
DE RUEHBK #5497/01 2500841
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 070841Z SEP 06
FM AMEMBASSY BANGKOK
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1459
RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BANGKOK 005497 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE PASS USTR 
USDOC FOR 4430/EAP/MAC/OKSA 
TREASURY FOR OASIA 
TREASURY PASS TO FRB SAN FRANCISCO/TERESA CURRAN 
 
E.O. 12958:N/A 
TAGS: ECON ETRD EFIN TH
 
SUBJECT:  COMMERCE UPDATES ON INVESTIGATION INTO NOMINEES 
 
REFTEL: BANGKOK 5424 
 
1.  On September 7, Embassy Economic and Commercial Counselors met 
with Mr. Yanyong Phuangrach, the Commerce Ministry's Deputy 
Permanent Secretary for Internal Trade, to be briefed on that 
Ministry's ongoing investigation into the sale of telecom operator 
ShinCorp to Singapore's Temasek (reftel).  Central to this 
investigation is the question of whether the structure of the 
transaction, specifically whether the putatively Thai holding 
companies which are used to make the transaction compliant with Thai 
law are in fact Thai and not simply stand-ins, or "nominees", for 
the Singaporeans. 
 
2.  Yanyong disclosed that he had intervened in the investigation 
just prior to the release of a Commerce report which concluded that 
a key nominee (Kularb Kaew) in the transaction was indeed 
Singaporean, not Thai.  He said, "I took charge of this because if 
we just turned the report over to the police, it would have caused 
big problems with other foreign investments in Thailand.  The main 
problem is that the investigation seeks to determine if Kularb Kaew 
is a nominee without first defining what a nominee is.  We first 
need a clear definition of nominee in the law." 
 
3.  Yanyong said that he and his staff are working on such a 
definition:  "We know public expectations are high on this and 
everyone wants to see results as soon as possible, but we need 
adequate time.  We also need to take into account this law's 
relationship with other Thai laws on land ownership and investment 
and to see clearly the impact of any change."  Yanyong refused to be 
drawn out on when he expected to finish his investigation into the 
ShinCorp deal's nominee structure, but we were left with the 
impression that Yanyong's project to define the term "nominee" will 
take at least several months. 
 
4.  Yanyong added that his ministry wanted to hear the views of 
foreign investors and their governments:  "We want to know what you 
want to see."  We replied that, in our view, no one was well served 
by the current policy of nominee structures:  the current policy 
lacks transparency for foreign investors, leaving many in a legally 
grey area; it has also been patently ineffective in preventing 
foreign participation in supposedly Thai-only investment areas.  It 
might be possible, we said, to take the lemons from the Shin 
investigation and make lemonade by leveraging the current 
controversy into support for liberalized, transparent foreign 
investment rules, with a much smaller number of Thai-only areas 
where genuine national security or other vital issues exist.  At 
Yanyong's urging, we agreed to advise the American Chamber of 
Commerce in Thailand to weigh in directly with Commerce on the 
changes U.S. investors would like to see in Thai investment rules. 
 
Joint Chambers enter the fray 
----------------------------- 
 
5.  The Joint Foreign Chambers of Commerce (JFCC) independently 
sought clarification of the new provisions for foreign business 
registrants.  In a bid to blunt the practice of using nominees, the 
Ministry of Commerce requires applications for business licenses 
with more than 40 percent foreign share to disclose certain 
information related to the source of funds used to capitalize the 
company.  Ministry of Commerce officials assured JFCC chair Peter 
van Haren that the new provisions would target only new business 
applicants, not companies that are restructuring or renewing their 
license, and that the scrutiny of funds would not be retroactive. 
 
6.  The Ministry of Commerce further clarified that they would 
scrutinize the validity and source of funds of Thai shareholders 
only, and not foreign shares.  This is in fact the crux of the 
investigation into Shin Corporation.  Investment analysts pointed 
out to us that the issue is not whether Temasek exceeded maximum 
ownership limits in its purchase of Shin, but rather whether the 
Thai partners in the deal violated provisions restricting Thai 
nationals from holding shares for foreign entities in order to 
circumvent those limits. 
 
7.  Comment:  The interests of U.S. investors diverge from those of 
other foreign investors, and the American Chamber of Commerce is 
distancing itself somewhat from statements made by the JFCC.  Most 
U.S. companies invested under Treaty of Amity rules or Board of 
Investment promotions that offer national treatment and majority 
foreign ownership, and rarely made use of nominees.  Scrutiny into 
current and planned investments is of much less concern to most U.S. 
investors, with the possible exception of companies who may have 
used nominee structures to (perhaps illegally) purchase land.  Since 
we encourage adherence to Thai law, we do not plan to protest 
examination into possibly illegal land purchases or other dodgy 
 
BANGKOK 00005497  002 OF 002 
 
 
ownership structures.  However, we will continue to encourage a 
reassessment of foreign ownership limits and the sectors to which 
they should be applied.  If a reassessment with the right terms of 
reference does occur, some good may yet result from the otherwise 
sad ShinCorp affair.  End Comment. 
BOYCE