Exiled former Thai leader Thaksin Shinawatra has no immediate plans to return to his homeland and downplayed concerns he would leverage his sister’s election win to regain more than $1 billion in seized wealth.
“Going back is not a main concern, not a top priority,” he told reporters today in Dubai, where he has lived since fleeing a jail sentence for abuse of power in 2008. “I should be part of the solution, not the problem.”
Thaksin, ousted in a 2006 coup, has backed parties that have won at least 49 percent of seats in five elections over the past decade. Last year, a court seized about 60 percent of the 76.6 billion baht ($2.5 billion) that his family earned from the 2006 sale of holding company Shin Corp. two weeks before street protests by his supporters killed 91 people.
“Don’t worry about it,” Thaksin said of the money. “I’m not starving.”
Yingluck Shinawatra, Thaksin’s sister, is set to become Thailand’s first female prime minister after her Pheu Thai party won 264 seats in yesterday’s election. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who resigned as leader of the losing Democrat party today, sought to win votes by saying Pheu Thai plans an amnesty for Thaksin, allowing him to return to Thailand and reclaim more than $1 billion in seized wealth.
Shares in SC Asset Corp, the property arm of the Shinawatra family, hit a seven-year high on Monday. Yingluck Shinawatra, destined to be the next prime minister, was president of the company until being selected to head Puea Thai's campaign.
Yingluck is Thaksin's sister. Although she has now resigned all her positions in the company, some investors feel SC Asset will benefit while she leads the government.
Her husband Anusorn Amornchat is president of handset distributor M-Link Asia Corp. Shares of M-Link, which was founded by Thaksin's other two sisters, jumped 25 percent to 2.22 baht on Monday morning.
WHAT ABOUT STATE COMPANIES?
Analysts expect more political interference and continued price subsidies.
Top energy firm PTT Pcl, which suffers losses in its natural gas for vehicles (NGV) business as a result of state intervention to hold down prices, wants the next government to review policy so that NGV prices reflect costs.
Policies at state-controlled companies such as PTT, Thai Airways International, second-largest lender Krung Thai Bank and broadcaster MCOT may be reviewed by the next government.
The finance ministry currently plans to reduce its holdings in the four companies. It has 51 percent of Thai Airways, whose plans to start up a budget airline have been caught up in a wrangling between the finance and transport ministries.
Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij backed the idea of selling at least part of the state's stake; the transport minister was opposed to the idea. Puea Thai's Yingluck has described state-run firms as "not dynamic" and said state control was not good.
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