UCOM paging unit may be shut down: report

Copyright 2000 AFX News Limited

　

AFX - Asia

　

August 29, 2000 Tuesday

　

SECTION: COMPANY NEWS

LENGTH: 193 words

HEADLINE: UCOM paging unit may be shut down: report

DATELINE: BANGKOK

BODY:

United Communication Industry Plc's paging unit,�Worldpage, may be shut down due to financial problems, the Bangkok Post quoted蟵 company source as saying.

Worldpage has accumulated debt of more than 100 mln baht and also owes the�Telephone Organisation of Thailand (TOT) 30 mln baht.

The company has offered to return its paging concession to the TOT in猬xchange for debt reduction. The TOT is studying Worldpage's offer and could𦅙ake a decision as early as next month, the source said.

Total Access Communication, UCOM's mobile phone subsidiary and parent of�Worldpage, last year announced plans to sell a 51 pct stake in Worldpage to泎liss-Tel which handles marketing operations for Worldpage.

The deal, however, stalled after a group of shareholders refused to sell慯heir shares to Bliss-Tel. Bliss-Tel is 24 pct held by Samart Corp, which also䰄perates Samart Paging.

Former and current executives of TAC hold 80 pct of Worldpage while Star蘯aging of Hong Kong holds the remaining 20 pct.

Worldpage currently has 70,000 subscribers.

ck/av

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LOAD-DATE: August 29, 2000