Foreigners who own controlling stake of companies in Thailand need to be aware of the new restrictive rules on shareholding.

Thailand’s military government ordered foreigners on Jan 9 to give up control of some businesses, mainly in the service sector, within two years.

Under the revised rules, foreign firms will be given two years to cut their controlling voting rights in select Thai registered companies to less than 50%.
There is no current limit on voting rights. Thailand’s 49% limit on foreign ownership refers to share ownership, not voting rights.

The second blow to foreign investors are the changes to the Foreign Business Act, which still require parliamentary and royal approval. (the first blow was when  the central bank imposed stricter capital controls last month.)
One such foreign investor is  Norway’s Telenor, which owns a controlling stake in Thailand’s second-largest mobile telecoms operator, Total Access Communication (Telenor directly owns a 32.6% stake in Singapore-listed Total Access Communication and has said its financial exposure to the group is 73.1% including indirect stakes.)

Total Access Communication is Thailand’s second-largest mobile phone operator with 11 million subscribers and a market share of 31%.  
- Reuters (15/1/07)

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