Siriwat Vongjarukorn, president of SET-listed MFEC Plc, has changed his mind about investing in the private placement (PP) shares of Solution Corner Plc (SLC) in order to stay away from the dispute between SLC and Nation Multimedia Group (NMG).
"I was dragged in between their arguments just because I am one of the potential investors in SLC's PP. Is that fair? Also, their arguments damage my reputation as NMG's executives call me a share manipulator, which is absolutely untrue," said Mr Siriwat.
"I'm not a share manipulator and, since SLC has planned to raise funds through PP in order to buy shares in that company [NMG], I will not buy their PP shares. I don't want to get involved with that."
SLC recently bought a 12.27% stake in NMG by buying shares at 13.50 baht apiece, triggering fears among NMG executives that they could lose their management power to the newcomer.
Even though SLC has promised it has no intention to interfere with management, NMG executives led by founder Suthichai Yoon have moved aggressively to force SLC to sell its NMG shares, saying they wanted to maintain media freedom.
SLC executives then decided to file lawsuits against NMG executives for allegedly spreading false information to damage their reputation.
Mr Siriwat had previously wanted to invest in SLC as he was interested in entering the media business to create synergy with MFEC, an information technology and telecommunications technology service provider.
MFEC could improve the efficiency of the media firm, while the media company would boost the IT firm's sales by using its services.
"Audiences will get more news and information from social media than from TV and newspapers in the future, so new technology needs to be applied and we as an IT operator can support that," said Mr Siriwat.
"Given NMG's strong opposition, I think this company would find it difficult to adapt to move along with the fast-changing consumer trend.
"However, the greatest concern about SLC's PP is that I was accused of involvement with a share manipulation gang. I want to prove that I never ever do that and I never gang up with anyone. I know some people who were named as SLC's PP buyers but we never joined hands in any investment."
Mr Siriwat said MFEC under his management had set a target for net profit to increase 15% each year, and it had already reached that target over the past three years.
However, MFEC is studying how to use technology to assess the efficiency of social networks such as Facebook, Pantip, Instagram and YouTube that can be used as advertising channels. This could help companies to adapt marketing.