Shareholders eye IFEC seat
A group of major shareholders of SET-listed Inter Far East Energy Corporation Plc (IFEC), a renewable power producer, has proposed sitting on the board of executives to help resolve the company’s debt defaults over the next few months.
Among the group’s plans to settle the debts are selling some assets, such as Dhara Dhevi Hotel in Chiang Mai or its power plants, as well as borrowing a tranche of money from the global markets.
Thavich Taychanavakul, managing director of Thai Industrial Estate Ltd, which holds a major portion of the IFEC stake of more than 200 million shares, has proposed himself and six other shareholders to join the executive board and encouraged all shareholders to vote for him.
“The latest debt defaults have caused major problems, destroying the company’s reputation, and this needs to be solved immediately,” Mr Thavich said.
IFEC defaulted on its debt for the second time in less than a month after failing to pay 200 million baht in bills of exchange (B/Es) owed to Solaris Asset Management Co Ltd.
Earlier, IFEC defaulted on 100 million baht of B/Es owed to LH Fund, a subsidiary of Land & Houses Plc, the SET-listed property developer, that were due in December 2016.
The debt defaults forced the Stock Exchange of Thailand to suspend trade of IFEC shares since Jan 12 until the company comes up with a clear clarification on debt payment details.
To solve the B/E defaults in the short term, Mr Thavich said he would sell one power plant to pay off overdue debts.
He said IFEC’s total liabilities are around 8 billion baht, while it still has total assets worth around 14 billion baht.
“However, I cannot give you further details about which plant we plan to sell because it would affect the sale and we are in talks now,” Mr Thavich said.
Apart from selling power plants, he is considering borrowing 1-2 billion baht from abroad to pay debts and for company operation and business expansion.
For the long term, Mr Thavich said IFEC would consider selling some assets, including the recently acquired Dhara Dhevi Hotel, to strengthen the company’s financial status.