The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has banned Triple A Plus Advisory Ltd from providing financial advisory service for one and a half years for its failure to comply with fiduciary duty while a company to which it provided financial advice has submitted an initial public offering (IPO) filing to the stock regulator.
The securities watchdog also prohibited Trakul Hengsakul, who supervised the deal, from working in financial advisory for one and a half years, it said in a statement yesterday. The bans took effect from yesterday.
Both Triple A Plus and Mr Trakul breached their fiduciary duties significantly as they did not conduct due diligence to create a clear-cut relationship between the company for which they provide financial advisory service and another one, the statement said.
The SEC found some interconnected transactions between both companies, such as providing a loan guarantee from a major shareholder of another company to a firm that Triple A Plus acts as a financial adviser for, leasing office buildings and plants.
The SEC was also sceptical because the two companies have similar names. Such shortcomings resulted in an inaccurate filing, which could cause the company seeking listing to fail to meet the criteria, it said without revealing the company.
Control persons and management team are considered important information for investors to make decisions.
The SEC found Triple A Plus's operations system still has lax scrutiny, resulting in the company and the deal supervisor failing to meet professional standards.
The SEC website reports Triple A Plus served as financial adviser for Communication & System Solution Plc (CSS), Raja Ferry Port Plc (RP), Chow Steel Industries (CHOW) and ASN Broker Plc (ASN) as they went public recently.