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Surin keen on role in ShinBy C.S. TAN
KUALA LUMPUR: Multi-Purpose Holdings Bhd (MPHB) managing director Datuk Surin Upatkoon is keen to play a role in Thailand's Shin Corp after paying US$70mil (RM259mil) for an indirect stake in it.
He paid the sum into a holding company, Kularb Kaew, on March 13, enlarging its paid-up capital and becoming its largest shareholder. Kularb Kaew is a major shareholder of Cedar, which, in turn, is the majority shareholder of Shin Corp.
In Kularb Kaew and Cedar, Surin's partners in the ownership of Shin Corp are Singapore's Temasek Holdings and Siam Commercial Bank, in which a major shareholding is considered Crown property in Thailand.
Datuk Surin Upatkoon
Cedar and Aspen, a subsidiary of Temasek, have just completed a general offer for Shin Corp and, together, they have paid about US$3.8bil (RM14bil) cash for a 96% stake in Shin Corp.
The role envisaged for Surin could be a directorship in Shin Corp but that awaits a decision and invitation from the board of the latter.
There will not be many changes in the Shin Corp board and no changes in the management. There are all professional managers, Surin told StarBiz yesterday in his office at Menara MPHB.
That would not be an issue because that was the policy of Temasek in entrusting local management with overseas companies in which it acquired stakes, he said. It has also been Temasek's practice to acquire minority stakes in such companies in partnership with local businessmen.
Surin, a Thai citizen with permanent-resident status in Malaysia, practises that policy here, too, where the MPHB group is managed by Malaysians.
I'm very happy to have Temasek as a partner. It is a very good partner to have, he said.
The sale of Shin Corp by the family of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to a group, perceived to be led by Temasek, became a political controversy. Street protests led Thaksin, who was elected in 2001 and re-elected last year, to dissolve parliament and to hold a general election on April 2.
There were reports in Thailand that were unaware if there is such a person (pointing to himself). Other reports questioned if I am a nominee of Temasek. They also questioned whether I have the financial capability to participate in the takeover, Surin said.
I am definitely not a nominee of Temasek, he added.
Surin admitted he was not well-known in Thailand. In fact, he keeps a low public profile in Malaysia, too, although he is a familiar figure in corporate circles here.
He came into the picture in the Shin Corp takeover after a Goldman Sachs investment banker from Singapore approached him on the matter. Later, discussions were held with Temasek's managing director of investment, S. Iswaran. Goldman Sach is Temasek's adviser in the takeover exercise.
Surin said Temasek wanted to re-capitalise Kularb Kaew while ensuring that Cedar, the new intermediate holding company of Shin Corp, is 51% owned by Thais, with the rest held by Temasek.
The re-capitalisation was essential because Cedar would have paid about RM7.3bil for its stake of 52% in Shin Corp, in which Aspen owns 44%.
We have re-capitalised Kularb Kaew, which has a paid-up capital of four billion baht (RM400mil) today. Cedar has equity of eight billion baht, and the rest is gearing, Surin said.
That would require Cedar to leverage with bank debts of about eight times its equity. That can be done because the Shin Corp group generates very strong cash flow. The leverage can definitely be done. The money has been raised and paid in the takeover, he said.
Shin Corp's cash-cow is Advance Info Service (AIS), a mobile-phone network operator with over 16 million subscribers. AIS helped Shin Corp to pay dividends totalling about RM590mil last year.
The group has three main divisions mobile-phone network, satellite operations and TV and it is quite similar to the Usaha Tegas/Tanjong group of Malaysia, which has done very well, according to Surin.
I'm glad to have this opportunity to invest in Thailand. For this investment to be good, Thailand's prospects must be good, and the country is doing very well, he added.
Surin came to Malaysia in 1965
HE first came to Malaysia some 40 years ago in his early teens to attend Form One at Penang's Han Chiang High School.
Surin Upatkoon has come a long way since then. Today, he is a datuk and managing director of Multi-Purpose Holdings Bhd (MPHB).
He was sent from Bangkok to Malaysia by his late father who had, at the time, set up Malayan Weaving, a textile company, in Penang.
Surin, who is in his 50s, joined the company in 1971, which was later listed on Bursa Malaysia and renamed MWE Bhd. He continues to be its major shareholder.
In Bangkok, his family has long been engaged in the textile industry. There, his brothers and sisters manage the family-owned company, PN Textiles Co Ltd.
Surin, known to observers for his entrepreneurial drive in diversifying MWE with acquisitions, had a big break when he participated in the acquisition of a major stake in MPHB, the largest shareholder of numbers forecast operator Magnum Corp Bhd.
In an earlier period, he was also known as Datuk K.K. Lau but, in recent years, he has used only his Thai name in company annual reports.
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http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/3/22/business/13736330&sec=business
