SEC raps Capital Plus

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has imposed a one-year suspension on Capital Plus Advisory for deficient performance in verifying the facts on its client’s documents seeking listing on the stock market.

This is the first case where an advisory firm was punished rather than only individuals.

The company’s financial adviser supervisor, Thibdee Mangkalee, was also suspended for the same duration, starting on Feb 27.

The drafting prospectus for its client’s initial public offering shares seeking listing on the Stock Exchange of Thailand was deficient, resulting in the SEC rejecting the IPO request.

The SEC probe found the company and Mr Thibdee did not exercise due care in verifying relationships between the applicant and a company or in verifying the applicant had transferred all the shares of said company to a third party despite various factors indicating the transaction might not exist.

This could lead to incorrect information on related transactions and thus mislead investors.

Also, the company did not advise the applicant to comply with relevant rules and regulations, particularly on issues of related party transactions and separation of businesses among the applicant and a group of parent companies that have an effect on shareholder rights. Capital Plus had jointly prepared a registration statement previously filed by this applicant.

Mr Thibdee’s actions were considered a failure to comply with the SEC’s rule concerning approval of financial advisers and scope of performance, while Capital Plus failed to meet professional standards.

“This yellow card is such a hard lesson. I will definitely be careful from now on,” Mr Thibdee said.