Stark Corporation Public Company Limited is a Thai holding company in the electric cable manufacturing industry. It was formed in 2019 through a

backdoor listing A reverse takeover (RTO), reverse merger, or reverse IPO is the acquisition of a public company by a private company so that the private company can bypass the lengthy and complex process of going public. Sometimes, conversely, the public compan ...

, and was listed on the SET100 index, but lost most of its value in 2023 after it was found to have falsified financial statements.

History

Stark was set up as a holding company for Phelps Dodge International (Thailand) (PDIT), the former Thai unit of

Phelps Dodge Phelps Dodge Corporation was an American mining company founded in 1834 as an import-export firm by Anson Greene Phelps and his two sons-in-law William Earle Dodge, Sr. and Daniel James. The latter two ran Phelps, James & Co., the part of the ...

and Thailand's largest cable manufacturer. PDIT had been founded as Phelps Dodge Thailand in 1968. In 2015, Vonnarat Tangkaravakoon, whose family is best known as the owners of TOA Paint, acquired a majority stake in PDIT as its previous owners exited the Thai market. Team A Holding 2 Co., Ltd. (TAH2) was set up as a private holding company for the business, and Chanin Yensudchai became its CEO. In 2019, Vonnarat acquired a majority stake in comic book publisher Siam Inter Multimedia PCL, which was merged with TAH2 in a

and renamed to Stark Corporation PCL on 10 July 2019. In 2020, Stark acquired Vietnamese manufacturers Thipha Cable and Dovina. The new subsidiaries brought heavy losses, but these were covered up in Stark's financial reports. In an attempt to raise cash, it announced plans in 2022 to acquire a subsidiary of Germany's Leoni AG, but withdrew from the purchase. This shook investor confidence and the company's shares fell sharply, and in the ensuing fallout, the

Securities and Exchange Commission The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street crash of 1929. Its primary purpose is to enforce laws against market m ...

stepped in to suspend trading, seized the company's assets, and brought fraud charges against its executives.

References

{{reflist Holding companies of Thailand Manufacturing companies of Thailand Wire and cable manufacturers Companies listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand Accounting scandals 2023 in Thailand Corruption in Thailand