Writer: Darana Chudasri *
Bangkok Post, April 27, 2016 – THAIPAT Institute has removed CP All Plc and BEC World Plc from its top 100 listed companies ranked by environmental, social and governance measures, citing the pair's tainted corporate reputation.
The deletion came after THAIPAT changed its measurement criteria to take into account unfair trading practices of listed company executives, court verdicts related to corporate governance and financial performance, said institute director Pipat Yodprudtikan.
Three top executives of the 7-Eleven convenience store operator CP All and an executive of True Corporation Plc were fined a combined 33.3 million baht by the Securities and Exchange Commission last year for using inside information for their own benefit.
The four, including CP All executive chairman Korsak Chairasmisak, used insider knowledge to buy shares of cash-and-carry giant Siam Makro Plc ahead of CP All's announcement that it would buy out Makro at an above-market price.
BEC World, the operator of Channel 3, was removed from the list after a court ruling to jail former news anchor Sorrayuth Suthassanachinda on corruption charges.
Shortly after the ruling, BEC World executives decided to keep Sorrayuth as an anchor, explaining the incident occurred before he started work at Channel 3 and the case was not yet settled. Sorrayuth later decided to take a break.
Sorrayuth and his company Rai Som were found guilty of cheating the Mass Communications Organisation of Thailand out of more than 138 million baht in advertising revenue during his news talk programme on Channel 9 in 2005 and 2006 by bribing an MCOT Plc employee to conceal records of extra advertising.
"Companies that have good practices but bad performance, and good performance but bad practices are worthless," Mr Pipat said.
MCOT and 45 other listed companies were removed from THAIPAT's list this year. MCOT was dropped because of its disappointing financial performance and the qualifications of some of its directors being questioned by shareholders, he said.
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