Principle
The Board of Directors has an important role in supervising the Company's businesses. To ensure efficiency, the Board's structure, as well as its authorities, duties and responsibilities must be appropriate and clearly defined. Individuals who are to be appointed the Company's directors must be honest in their duties, have vision, ability and experience and be able devote their time to fully perform their duties for the Company. These individuals must also be independent in their decision making for the best interests of the Company and shareholders as a whole. Furthermore, in order to enhance the efficiency of the Board of Directors, there must be committees in charge of providing assistance in areas of supervision, studying and screening of works as necessary.
Guidelines
In order to ensure that the Board's structure is suitable for the Company's business operations and to clearly define the framework, authorities, duties and responsibilities of the Board with a view to enhancing its efficiency, the Board of Directors has established the guidelines as set forth below.
Structure of the Board of Directors
1.Composition of the Board of Directors
1.1The Board of Directors must consist of at least five directors. At least one-third of the total number of directors, but not less than three directors, must be independent directors. The Chairman of the Board of Directors must not be a chairman or member of any committee, and must not be the same person as Co-President.
1.2The Board of Directors must consist of directors who possess different qualifications in terms of skills, experiences, special expertise that benefits the Company, race, nationality, and gender. The composition of the Board of Directors and the years of directorship of each director will be disclosed in an annual report and the Company's website.
1.3The Board of Directors must include at least one female independent director.
2.Qualifications of Directors
2.1Directors
2.1.1All directors must possess the qualifications, and have no prohibited characteristics, as prescribed by the law on public limited companies, law on securities and exchange and notifications of the regulatory authorities. The independent directors must also possess the qualifications as prescribed by the Capital Market Supervisory Board.
2.1.2All directors must have experience in related fields of business and industry for the overall interests of the Company as well as an understanding of business obstacles, and must be able to perform duties in an efficient manner, to create competitive advantage in the industry and to provide insight into the handling of important risks.
2.1.3Without exception, no director may hold directorship positions in more than five listed companies.
2.1.4A director may not have been an employee or partner of an external auditing firm engaged by the Company during the past two years.
2.1.5A director who serves as an executive director may not hold a directorship position in more than two other listed companies.
2.1.6If any director holds a directorship or management position in another company, he or she shall report the details thereof to the Company. This matter shall be one of his or her interests that must be reported under Disclosure of Information and Transparency of Corporate Governance Policy.
2.2Additional qualifications for independent directors
2.2.1The qualifications of independent directors shall at least be in accordance with the criteria prescribed by the regulatory authorities as prescribed below. The Company may add required qualifications as appropriate as follows:
-Holds not more than 0.5% of the total outstanding voting shares of the Company, a parent company, a subsidiary, an associate, a major shareholder, or a controlling person of the Company, including shares held by a person related to the independent director;
-Is neither a director that has a management authority nor an employee, staff, advisor on regular retainer, or a controlling person of the Company, a parent company, a subsidiary, an associate, a subsidiary of the same tier, a major shareholder, or of the Company’s controlling person both in the present and at least two years prior to taking the independent directorship;
-No relationship by blood or legal registration, in a nature that makes the independent director be a parent, spouse, brothers and sisters, children nor spouse of children of a management, a major shareholders, a controlling person or a person who will be nominated as a management or a controlling person of the Company or a subsidiary;
-Is not involved in the following relationships with the Company, a parent company, a subsidiary, an associate, a major shareholder or a controlling person of the Company in a nature which may obstruct his independent judgment, both in the present and at least two years prior to taking the independent directorship;
-The business relationship including from normal course of business transactions, rent or lease out the property, transactions related to assets or services nor provide or receive financial support by borrowing, lending, surety, or other similar manner, which incur debt to the Company or contract party equivalent to 3% of the net tangible assets of the Company or amounting to Baht 20 million up, whichever is lower. This threshold is applicable to all indebtedness incurred within one year prior to the date of having such business relationship. For consideration the business relationship, it is included the relationship as a significant shareholder or a controlling person of firms the Company having such businesses with;
-be an auditor or a significant shareholder, a controlling person or a partner of the audit firm of such auditor; and
-be a professional service provider such as legal or financial advisor, whose service fee exceed Baht 2 million per year, or a major shareholder, a controlling person or a partner of such firm.
2.2.2Independent directors must be independent of the Company's management and majority shareholders.
2.2.3An independent director may hold directorship positions in no more than five listed companies.
Nomination of Directors
3.The rules and process for nominating new directors must be disclosed in the annual report.
4.In nominating directors, the Company must prescribe the qualifications of directors to be nominated according to its business strategies. The Company may engage a professional search firm or use a third-party institution's director pool to recruit appropriate persons.
Term of Directorship
5.At every annual general meeting of shareholders, one-third of the directors, being those who have held the longest term in office, shall retire. If the number of directors is not a multiple of three, the number nearest to one-third shall retire from office. A retiring director may be nominated to the meeting for re-election.
6.If there is a vacancy on the Board of Directors for any reason other than a retirement by rotation, the Board of Directors shall elect a person who has the qualifications and possesses no prohibited characteristics under the law as a substitute director, unless the remaining term of office of the vacating director is less than two months. The newly-appointed director shall hold office only for the remaining term of office of the director whom he or she replaces. Such appointment must be approved by a vote of not less than three-fourths of the number of subsisting directors.
7.Each independent director may hold the position of independent director for no more than a maximum of nine consecutive years from the date of the 2014 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders, unless he or she is re-elected by a shareholders meeting to hold such position in excess of nine consecutive years based on the reasons and necessities as proposed by the Company
Board of Directors Meetings
8.Meetings of the Board of Directors shall be held more than six times a year. The meeting dates shall be scheduled annually in advance, but may be rescheduled if necessary. Each director will be notified of the meeting schedule, and has the duty to attend every board meeting. If any director is unable to attend a meeting, he or she shall give notice of the reason therefor to the Company Secretary prior to such meeting. The Company Secretary shall subsequently notify such director of the meeting results.
9.Co-President, together with the Chief Financial Officer and the Company Secretary, shall review issues to be included in the meeting agenda of the Board of Directors before such agenda is submitted to the Chairman of the Board of Directors for approval. Each director is freely entitled to propose any matters beneficial to the Company for inclusion in the meeting agenda.
10.The Company Secretary has the duties to give advice on laws and regulations which the Board of Directors must be aware of, to handle activities of the Board of Directors, to coordinate the implementation of the Board of Directors resolutions, to prepare meeting documents with full and complete significant details, and to deliver these documents to the directors at least seven days before the meeting date for their thorough and complete consideration.
11.At each meeting, the executives who are directly responsible for the proposed agenda items shall be invited to present such agenda items to the meeting, so that the directors will have an opportunity to know them to support the Board's consideration of a succession plan. All directors are given an opportunity to discuss and exchange their views, and make independent decisions. The meeting may request additional information from Co-President, the Company Secretary or other executives, or seek advice from independent consultants as appropriate.
12.A minimum quorum of at least 2/3 for board decisions for each agenda is required.If any director has a vested interest in any agenda item, he or she shall immediately disclose the details thereof to the Board of Directors and shall not participate in the decision making for such agenda item. This shall also be recorded in the minutes of meeting of the Board of Directors.
13.The non-executive directors may hold meetings to discuss matters relating to the Company's overall management as necessary, without any management personnel in such meeting. The reports on the meeting results shall be submitted to the board meetings for information.
14.The Chairman of the Board of Directors should allocate sufficient time for the management to present matters, and the directors to thoroughly discuss the same, and should encourage the exercise of prudential discretion. Every director should pay attention to all issues presented to the meeting, including corporate governance issues.
15.Each director has to attend at least 75% of all the board meetings held during the year.
Evaluation of the Board of Directors’ Performance
16.The Remuneration and Nominating Committee shall evaluate the Board of Directors’ performance annually and report the results to the Board of Directors.
17.The Board of Directors shall conduct a self-assessment at least once a year. The Chairman of the Board of Directors will be responsible therefor. Such self-assessment process and criteria shall be disclosed in the annual report.
18.There shall be an evaluation of individual directors performance. The process and criteria for such evaluation shall be disclosed in the annual report.
19.An evaluation of the performance of each sub-committee shall be conducted, and a report on the results thereof shall be made to the Board of Directors at least once a year.
20.The Board of Directors may engage an external consultant to help establish the guidelines and recommend the issues in evaluating the performance of the Board of Directors.
Remuneration of Directors and Executives
21.Remuneration of directors shall be in accordance with the rules prescribed by the Remuneration and Nominating Committee.
22.Remuneration of the executives shall be in accordance with the rules prescribed by the Executive Committee.
Development of Directors and Executives
23.The development of directors and executives shall be in accordance with the director and executive development plan and succession plan under Management topic. Co-President must report the implementation of these plans to the Executive Committee every year.
24.Training and knowledge on the Company's corporate governance shall be regularly provided to the directors and executives. Such training and knowledge enhancement may be conducted internally or by third-party institution.
25.Upon assuming a directorship position for the first time, the director shall receive all the important information relating to the Company, including its Articles of Association which prescribe the roles, duties and responsibilities of the Board of Directors, as well as information relating to the laws, regulations and conditions pertaining to the assumption of directorship position in a listed company, and other information relating to the Company's business operations.
Holding of Position by Executives
26.If Co-President or an executive holds a directorship position in another company other than as assigned by the Company, he or she shall report the details thereof to the Company as prescribed by the law. Co-President or an executive may not serve as a president of another company, except as assigned by the Company.
27.An executive must not have been an employee or partner of an external auditing firm engaged by the Company during the past two years.