Confused By Sunbelt

[ytivarg]

I recently went to Sunbelt Asia for help in increasing the registered capital for my company. I was told that I could increase the registered capital for a very reasonable 3,400 baht plus government fees. But there was one catch. I was also told that if I increased the registered capital I would have problems doing the yearly renewal for my work permit because my share structure would not reflect the increase in registered capital. Sunbelt offered to "update my share structure" for an extra 3,000 baht so the work permit renewal would go though. This sounded really strange to me because I thought that the increase in registered captal was in itself just an issuance of shares which is recorded in the company's share structure. It felt like bill padding to me. Can anyone figure this one out? Greg?

[Moonfruit]

I believe that sunbelt price things for exactly what they say, so to increase the share structure would take 2 steps, and therefore two bills.

Just my two cents worth after a few years of dealing with them for different things.

Im sure Greg or someone will have the definitive answer.

[capco1]

I've lost confidence in Sunbelt, I was very interested in looking at a business they had listed for sale and after several emails I still had zero info on the business in question and was finally told to just contact the owner in Australia....which was fine except the only contact info they had was a bad email address....The agent was of NO help what so ever and I felt he really cared less if the business sold or not! If I were the owner of the business need I say I would be very pissed.

[kudroz]

This is what I think is going on here

Government fees: ฿5,600 per Million of Registered Capital

Filing/Preparing Government forms: ฿3,400 Sunbelt fees

(this is probably straight forward, do not have to submit your shares register. they just change the authorized capital in your memorandum and submit it to the government.)

Share Structure: ฿3,000 Sunbelt fees

(update of the share register: issuance of new shares to the X shareholders, etc)

[kash]

howcome Sunbelt has stopped answering people at the board? busy making money offboard? kind of strange strategy if they would like future customers from here ...

[jackr]

I'd suggest using the PM function if you want to get hold of Greg. I'd say he doesn't feel comfortable about discussing business on the open forum. Regards emailing; it's a great form of communication when it works, but with various filters and spammy-looking email addresses it is easy for individual ones to get lost in the ether amid the thousands of trash emails.

[ytivarg]

kudroz,

My wife called the Ministry of Commerce and confirmed that increasing the registered capital in the Memorandum involves issuing additional shares which must be registered with the Department of Business Development. I just don't understand how the share structure could be updated any further. And the story they gave me about how increasing the registered capital would make it impossible to do the work permit renewal is just so ludicrous. I think that the problem is that Sunbelt customer service agents are on commission and that Sunbelt has just grown way to big for Greg to handle. Anyways, Greg is probably still on vacation now and hopefully he can clarify things soon.

[sonicdragon]

I recently went to Sunbelt Asia for help in increasing the registered capital for my company. I was told that I could increase the registered capital for a very reasonable 3,400 baht plus government fees. But there was one catch. I was also told that if I increased the registered capital I would have problems doing the yearly renewal for my work permit because my share structure would not reflect the increase in registered capital. Sunbelt offered to "update my share structure" for an extra 3,000 baht so the work permit renewal would go though. This sounded really strange to me because I thought that the increase in registered captal was in itself just an issuance of shares which is recorded in the company's share structure. It felt like bill padding to me. Can anyone figure this one out? Greg?

If thai company law is the same as other jurisdictions in this respect then I believe that the red underlined phrase is the source of your misunderstanding - the authorised share capital can easily be increased without issuing any shares. A second step is required to actually issue shares to the shareholders. It's the difference between "authorised share capital" and "paid up share capital", both of which need to be "registered" and so "registered share capital" is rather ambiguous.

Edited December 27, 2007 by sonicdragon

[ytivarg]

Hey guys, I am totally wrong on this one. Sunbelt is right. After going though the Department of Business Development website, it turns out that increasing registered capital is a process where you must issue shares and have them registered. But this only a legal requirement. In an operational sense it is a two step process. First you have to increase paid up capital and then register the new shares. I guess i was confused by the explanation given by Sunbelt that one could increase registered capital without the "share structure update." In reality this would incur some fines by the Ministry of Commerce if they found out.