Firm wants to collectThai Mobile debts

Business News - Saturday December 22, 2007

Samart sues state telecoms

Firm wants to collectThai Mobile debts

KOMSAN TORTERMVASANA

Samart Corporation yesterday sued TOT Plc and CAT Telecom in the Civil Court, demanding overdue debts plus interest and damages totalling 2.6 billion baht.

The court accept the suit and scheduled the first hearing for March 24.

Jong Diloksombat, chief operating officer of Samart I-Mobile, the handset distribution arm of Samart, said the case involved non-payment of debts by Thai Mobile, the stillborn cellular joint venture of the two state telecom enterprises.

Samart has provided call centre and marketing services for Thai Mobile for more than three years.

The company is claiming unpaid debts of 1,115 million baht, plus 1,533 million baht for damages to the company's image and financial credibility, plus interest amounted to.

''Our company has suffered as have its partners and dealers and also as a listed company,'' he said.

Mr Jong said Samart had sent more than 25 letters to executives of the state telecoms but had received no response.

He said Samart chose to sue when Thai Mobile sent a letter to inform the company that it had scrapped the contracts with Samart.

''This showed that they did not take any responsibility over what we have tried to do,'' he said.

TOT vice-president Kittipong Taemeyapradit said TOT would await formal notification from the Civil Court before deciding on further action.

However, he said TOT would defend the suit in court.

Earlier, Samart had proposed negotiations with TOT to end the dispute over 1.12 billion baht in overdue debt.

Since 2002, Samart I-Mobile has been contracted by Thai Mobile to operate call centres, customer service, billing and marketing. The value of the contracts is 1.8 billion baht.

The contract for call centres, customer service and marketing expired in October, while the billing agreement is to expire over the next two years.

However, Samart stopped providing all services for Thai Mobile in June after the latter failed to pay bills since 2005. Thai Mobile had paid Samart 800 million baht earlier.

Thai Mobile has six billion baht in debt and only 70,000 customers in a market of 52 million. The business has been affected by disagreements between TOT and CAT over control.

Bangkok Post