1. Rights of Shareholders
The Board of Directors shall oversee and protect every shareholder to receive his /her basic rights, as follows :
- No restriction in trading or transferring shares, unless such share transfer shall cause the Company to have alien shareholders in excess of 49% of total issued shares;
- Having equal rights to receive correct and complete information in time;
- Having rights to attend and vote in the Meeting of shareholders;
- Having rights to nominate, appoint, or remove Directors, and to approve the appointment of Independent Auditors;
- Having rights to join in decision making on the change of important policies of the Company;
- Having rights to receive profit sharing.
Every shareholder shall receive the Meeting Notice and information on date, time, place, and agenda,
inclusive of the information related to the matters which must be decided in the Meeting, sufficiently
in advance and in time.
The Company shall arrange appropriate place where can be reached by public transportation and
appropriate time for the Shareholders Meeting so that it would be convenient for shareholders and
institutional investors to attend.
Directors and all concerned persons, such as auditors must be prepared to give explanation or to answer
questions of the shareholders.
The Company notified the shareholders who wanted to add the Meeting Agenda and/or to nominate the persons who should be elected
as the Directors of the Company in advance via website of the Company to enable the shareholders to inform the Company of their intentions.
In the Meeting, shareholders can ask questions, explanations, and express their opinions regarding the
agenda under discussion. The Board of Directors shall not change the Agenda of the Meeting without
having a prior permission from the Meeting.
Shareholders shall be informed of rules used in the Meeting and voting procedures and the Company
shall disseminate the Meeting Agenda with supporting information in the website of the Company prior
to the distribution of the documents to the shareholders so that they would have enough time to digest the
information in advance.
In each agenda, there will be opinions of the Board of Directors for shareholders consideration.
All questions asked in the Meeting and the important opinions will be completely minuted so that
the shareholders and the concerned parties can audit them.
Every Director and top Management shall disclose the relationships, both directly and indirectly, with
the major shareholders or the third parties who have significant business transactions with the Company.
2. Equal Treatment of Shareholders
In convening shareholders Meeting, the Company has a policy to equally treat shareholders as follows:
- The Company shall serve a meeting notice on every shareholder not less than 14 days prior to
the date of the Meeting, and shall also disseminate the information on date, time, place, and agenda on
the website of the Company
- The Company shall advertise and invite the shareholders to attend the Meeting of Shareholders
in newspapers not less than 3 consecutive days prior to the date of the Meeting.
- The Company shall accommodate all shareholders in registering for attending the Meeting via
registration aid computer system for the most convenient and swiftness of the shareholders.
- The Company shall convene the Meeting of Shareholders on the date, time, and at the place
which are convenient for the shareholders to attend and shall not have a sudden change in the venue
of the Meeting to the extent that the shareholders cannot attend.
- The Board of Directors shall allow the shareholders to use the proxies in the form which the
shareholders can determine the voting direction and shall nominate at least one Independent
Director as an alternative in giving their proxies.
- The Company Secretary shall notify the shareholders of the rules and regulations used in the
Meeting, voting procedures, and total shares held by the participants prior to commencement
of the Meeting.
- Each share shall have equal right and vote. The shareholder shall have the rights to vote
according to the shares held.
- The Meeting Chairperson shall conduct the Meeting per the agenda stipulated in the meeting notice.
- The Meeting Chairperson shall give opportunities to the shareholders to ask questions in
association with each agenda.
- The Board of Directors shall use the voting ballots in every important agenda and/or that in which the shareholders have different opinions.
- Every shareholder attending the Meeting can exercise the right to vote in every case, whether it is an affirmative vote, a negative vote, or an abstention.
3. Duties to Stakeholders
The Board of Directors has policies to oversee and keep the rights of every group of stakeholders as prescribed by laws, whether they are shareholders, customers, creditors, trading partners, independent auditors, management, employees, public sector, society, and other concerned agencies, to give them confidence that their rights shall be equally protected and treated, for instance :
- Duties to Shareholders : The Company will act as a good agent of shareholders in business operations bringing maximize satisfaction to the shareholders, by taking into consideration the sustainable growth of the Company value, including disclosing the information in the transparent and reliable manners.
- Duties to Customers : The Company will create maximize satisfaction to the customers, by paying attention to the services and being responsible for the products qualities and prices, including clearly and fairly conducting the business with every customer.
- Duties to Creditors : The Company will adhere to the conditions and terms as set forth in the loan agreement or trade contract made with every financial creditor or trade creditor and will fairly treat the creditors as if they were the Companys trading partners.
- Duties to Competitors : The Company has policy to treat its competitors under the framework of laws related to competition practices. The guidelines for treating competitors are as follows: Operating business under the good practices of competition, seeking no confidential information of competitors in a dishonest way, and with not intentionally destroy reputation of competitors with groundless slander.
- Duties to Employees : The Company will oversee its employees to develop themselves so that they will be able to work more efficiently, including encouraging them to have morality and ethics to work honestly. The Company will equally and fairly treat every employee and provide suitable remuneration.
- Duties to Society and Environment : The Company is aware of the Company and its employees responsibilities to society and environment. As employees and the Company are parts of the society, they have their duties to provide peace and orderliness to the society,
particularly rendering assistance to the needy or to the people who are economically and socially disadvantaged insofar as practicable. For environment, the products sold by the Company are fuel oils which may easily have negative impact on environment and may cause serious peril to the
communities and environments; hence, the Company sets out a policy to designate the staff concerned to such matters to strictly perform their duties under the official rules and regulations.
4. Information Disclosure and Transparency Information Disclosure
- The Board of Directors assigned the Management to correctly and completely disclose all
information required under the rules and regulations of The Stock Exchange of Thailand
and the Securities and Exchange Commission, both in Thai and in English languages, via
the information dissemination channels and media of The Stock Exchange of Thailand and
on the website of the Company
- Only the persons designated by the Board of Directors or the top Management shall disclose
information to shareholders, investors, securities analysts, mass media, or regulatory entities.
- The information which shall be disclosed by the Company on a regular basis are as follows :
- General information and nature of business operations;
- Financial statements and the results of operations of the Company, including analytical results;
- Name list and shareholding proportion of major shareholders and the Management;
- Business risk factor;
- Overall Directors and Management remuneration;
- Directors qualifications;
- Transactions with connected persons.
- The Board of Directors requires that financial statements or financial information be prepared to
show the financial positions and the results of operations of the Company, as prescribed by laws,
and such information shall be completely, correctly, sufficiently, and timely disclosed for the
acknowledgement of all shareholders and stakeholders of the Company.
- The Company has its accounts and financial statements audited by independent auditors.
- The Company shall facilitate the third parties such as securities analysts, investment consultants,
securities brokers, rating institutions, mass media, and external supervisory organizations, with
data analyses, for the benefits of investors decision making or for other benefits.
- To disclose the report on good corporate governance policy and its results of the policy compliance in the annual report.
- To disclose the roles and duties of the Board of Directors, the number of Meetings, and the number of each director attending the Meeting, including the forms and natures of remuneration paid to the
Directors and the Management in the annual report.
Board of Directors Report
The Board of Directors will provide the Report on Responsibilities of the Board of Directors regarding
the financial statements of the Company and other essential issues in line with the good practices as
prescribed by The Stock Exchange of Thailand together with the auditors opinion in the annual report,
including adequate disclosure on important information in notes to financial statements. The Audit
Committee and the external auditors will jointly discuss with the Management to ensure that the financial
reports of the Company are correct and complete.
Relationships with Investors
The Board of Directors focuses on correct, complete, and transparent disclosure, both on
the parts of the financial and general information as well as other sensitive information which may
affect the Company so that it will reach the investors and other concerned parties in time as prescribed
by The Stock Exchange of Thailand, whereby the Company disseminates such information via channels
of The Stock Exchange of Thailand and website of the Company at
www.susco.co.th. and will assure that such information is correct, complete and reliable. And, in order to prevent rumors, the Company has assigned its Managing Director and/or Deputy Managing Director of
Operations to take responsibility for answering questions to investors and concerned parties. Investors can contact such persons at
Tel. 0-2428-0029 or E-mail address:
marvee@susco.co.th
Complaint Filing Channels
The Board of Directors, on November 24, 2015, resolved to have the policy to provide direct
contact channels for all stakeholders who have encountered inappropriate actions such as fraud,
corruption, inappropriate behavior of Director, Management, and/or staff, infringement of
stakeholders rights, or any other issues that affect or may affect any stakeholder by assigning
the Audit Committee to investigate the said issue prior to reporting to the Board of Directors.
Complaint can be submitted by letter, E-mail, website, phone, or fax to the following
address.
The Audit Committee
SUSCO PUBLIC COMPANY LIMITED
139 Ratburana Road, Bangpakok, Ratburana, Bangkok 10140
E-mail : corporatesecretary@susco.co.th
Website : www.susco.co.th
Telephone : 0 2428 0029 #110 or #111 Fax : 0 2428 8001
Having received the message, if the complaint is related to fraud or corruption, the Audit Committee
will submit the issue to the Anti-corruption Working Group for fact finding; subsequently,
the latter will revert to the former as soon as possible.
For other cases, the Audit Committee will consider together with the related party.
In case an employee wants to file a complaint, he/she can either choose the above method or follow
the Companys working regulations, as the case may be.
In the event that the whistleblower is concerned about the negative effect which may cause him/her,
he/she may choose not to identify himself/herself. In any case, the Company will always protect him/her
from unfair treatment.
5.Responsibilities of the Board of Directors
The Board of Directors oversees the businesses and determines policies, strategies, business plans, and revenue and expenditure budgets annually to maximize overall benefits of the Company and the shareholders.
Roles, duties, and responsibilities of the Board of Directors are as follows:
1. Leadership, Visions, and Independence of Decision-Making
The Board of Directors has its duties and responsibilities for formulating policies, considering,
approving, and reviewing the strategies, goals, business plans, revenue and expenditure budgets, and
managing the risks of the Company, including overseeing that the Management will efficiently and
transparently operate the Companys business in line with the policies, plans, and budgets. In addition,
the Board of Directors concentrates on good corporate governance by preparing, in writing, the good
corporate governance polices of the Company, including approving, reviewing, and assessing the
operating results from abiding by such policies at least once a year, emphasizing that the Company
will have good internal controls and efficient risk management measures, as well as always following
up the operations on such issues. Accordingly, the Board of Directors needs to be composed of the
persons possessing leadership, visions, and independence of decision-making to maximize the benefits
of the Company and the shareholders.
At present, the Company has altogether 6 groups of the Board of Directors and main Subcommittees, namely the Board of Directors, the Board of Executive Directors, the Audit Committee,
the Remuneration and Nomination Subcommittee, the Risk Management Committee, and the
Occupational Safety, Health, and Environment Committee; the authorities, roles and responsibilities
of which have been clearly stipulated in writing. The aforesaid authorities include the financial
approval authorities for segregation of authorities in accordance with the good corporate governance
principles and in order for the Management to be always efficient, transparent, and auditable.
2. Board of Directors Structure
- Check and balance of non-executive directors
- According to the Articles of Association, the Board of Directors comprises not less than 5
and not more than 15 Directors, having the qualifications as prescribed by laws.
- As at December 31, 2015, the Company had 14 Directors. 5 of whom were Independent
Directors. Every Director possessed knowledge, capabilities, and experiences adequate for
using his/her judgment to consider the problems of the Company and lead the Company towards
sustainable prosperity.
- Seven of 14 Directors were executive Directors. Two of 14 Directors were non- executive
Directors. Five of 14 Directors were independent Directors and Four of whom were the members
of Audit Committee.
- The directorship will be as specified in the Articles of Association, which is a period of
3 years, except the one elected to replace the Director who resigns, will hold directorship only
for the remaining period of the resigning Director. Upon the expiration of the term, the Board of
Directors shall ask the Ordinary General Meeting to elect the replacing Directors. In this regard, for transparency sake, the Company will propose the qualified person, together with his/her
profile, whom the Board of Directors is of the opinion that he/she should be elected
to be the Director to every shareholder for consideration in the Ordinary General Meeting.
- Aggregation and Segregation of Authorities
- To clearly segregate the authorities and duties in formulating polices, and supervising
and managing routine jobs, the Chairperson will not be the same person as the Executive
Chairman and the Managing Director and will not be the Chairperson or member of any
subcommittees.
- Qualifications of Directors and Independent Directors
- The persons who hold office of directors and independent directors will be completely
qualified under the laws and will have no qualifications prohibited under the Notifications of
SEC. Additionally, they will have adequate knowledge, capabilities, and experiences which
are beneficial to the Company.
3. The Board of Directors has prescribed clear guidelines to supervise and prevent conflict of interest in the Companys business operations, as follows :
- To structure the Company and the Board of Directors and other groups of Subcommittees with clear stipulation of their authorities, duties and responsibilities under the good corporate governance practices;
- To encourage every member of the Management and employee to work with honesty, adhering to the code of professional conduct, and not to emphasize personal benefits more than the
responsibilities to the Company, including keeping the secrecy of customers and not to disclose
inside information of the Company and customers, for the personal benefits or the benefits of
other parties;
- In the case of any decision-making which may cause conflict of interest or in the case
where there are certain acts which are beneficial to the Company but they are not in accordance
with the different benefits of each group of stakeholders, the Board of Directors and the
Management will carefully discuss such problems in the cautious, careful, honest, reasonable,
and independent manners under good ethical frameworks for the benefits of the Company;
- In the event that there is any issue which may cause conflict of interest or which are connected transactions or transact with connected persons, the interested Directors shall disclose the information to the Meeting and have no right to vote on such agenda;
- Every Director, Management, and employee will not perform any act which is against the benefits of the Company nor exploit the chance or using the information derived from being a Director or an employee for personal benefits nor run competing businesses with the Company nor perform any duties other than those of the Company, which may affect the performance of their duties.
4. The Board of Directors fully recognizes that to successfully operate the business aiming at the
sustainable highest goal with efficient operating system, it is necessary to always have ethics in
the business operations. Therefore, the Board of Directors has prepared written business ethical
guidelines to be observed by every Director, Management, and employee of the Company and its
subsidiaries in performing his/her duties with honesty and in fair manners to customers, shareholders,
and every group of stakeholders.
5. The Board of Directors emphasizes the internal control systems, both at management and operational levels, to prevent the Company from damages, on financial, operations, risk management, and
compliance supervision aspects; therefore, the policies with respect to the internal audit and control
systems were laid down as follows:
- The Management of the Company will be responsible for preparing timely financial
reports which are correct and complete, both quarterly and annually;
- Efficient internal control and audit systems will be undertaken to ensure that the Company complies with all related guidelines and laws. The system will be audited by the internal auditors and reviewed by the Audit Committee;
- The authorities, duties and responsibilities of the Management in operating the business will be prescribed in writing;
- The utilization of the Companys assets will be continuously monitored and inspected so that they will not be damaged or misused or unduly utilized;
- Duties and responsibilities of the staff or the working units will be separated for appropriate checks and balance;
- The Board of Directors will duly pay attention to recommendations or suggestions of the
Independent Auditors and to use them as guidelines in considering the proper improvement
of the operations.
6. The Board of Directors shall convene the Meetings based on the following practices:
- The Board of Directors will, in advance, fix the regular Meetings which will be held on a monthly basis to enable the Directors to conveniently allocate their time for every Meeting; in addition, there may be special Meeting as necessary. In every regular Meeting, there will be agenda on the matters arising to follow-up the issues of the previous Meeting and the monthly operational
results of the Company.
- In the Meeting of the Board of Directors, to constitute a quorum, there will be not less than one-half of all of the Directors attending the Meeting.
- The Chairman will endorse the Meeting agendas in collaboration with the Executive Chairman, the Managing Director, and the Company Secretary by taking into account the requests of
Directors and top Management to include other important issues in the Meeting agenda.
- The Chairman will allocate adequate time for the Management and the Directors to propose and discuss the issues.
- The Board of Directors will encourage the top Management who is directly related to the issue under consideration to join the Meeting to provide additional details.
- Directors can have access to and can request information, consultation, and necessary services from an assignee or may request outsiders independent opinions.
- It is a duty of the Management to provide appropriate information and opinions to the Board of Directors.
- The Company Secretary will serve the meeting notice together with the agendas and supporting documents on Directors not less than 7 days in advance to enable every director to have
sufficient time to study all related information prior to attending the Meeting.
- In every Meeting of the Board of Directors, the written minutes of every agenda will be
completely recorded and the adopted minutes will be properly kept and will be available,
at all times, for inspection by the Directors and/or the related parties.
7. It is a policy of the Board of Directors to enhance each Directors knowledge in the subject
of supervising important issues as announced, including to encourage the Directors to attend
training courses which are beneficial to the performance of the Directors duties.