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11 May 2005 - Thailand's Energy Minister, Viset Choopiban, has announced the privatization of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), the country's largest utility.
Viset said: "The cabinet approved the corporatization, setting up EGAT as a public company with a registered capital of baht60bn ($1.5bn) of six billion shares at a par price of baht10 per share."
Under the terms of the share issue, expected this November, the government will retain 75 per cent control and 25 per cent will be made available to the general public. No more than five per cent will be sold to foreign investors.
The state owned utility was due to be privatized in May 2004, but some of the largest union protests ever witnessed in Thailand swayed the government in to scrapping the proposed share issue.
The plan was revived in October 2004 after the establishment of a ten member committee chaired by Boonchoo Direksathapon, the managing director of Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding Plc, to seek the most suitable privatization model for Egat.
The government is not expecting to encounter the same problems with the unions this time. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said: "To my understanding, most EGAT staff agree with this privatization and very few still oppose it."
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