All the telecom companies had raised funds through the stock market, but like other corporations, they had also been seduced low interest foreign loans, and were badly hit by the baht fall. But the Shinawatra group lost much less than its rivals. According to the group's own figures, the exchange losses in 1997 were 2 billion baht for CP Telecom Asia, 11.1 billion for Jasmine, 17.7 billion for Ucom, and only 1.1 billion for Shinawatra (Ariwat 2003 159). The liabilities of Shinawatra companies increased in 1997, but much less than those of the two major rivals, TelecomAsia and Ucom (see table 2.4). Thaksin claimed that the Shinawatra companies suffered less than competitors because they had hedged their foreign loans six months before the baht was floated (Ariwat 2003, 159). But some have suspected that other reasons came into play. At the time of the float, Thanong Bidaya was finance minister 17 Thanong had arranged Thaksin's first loans from Thai Military Bank (TMB) in 1986, and joined Shinawatra as financial overseer for 1989-92, before returning to TMB as president. He was Thaksin's foremost financial and had been a director Shinawatra companies. He was part of the decision made to float the baht, a week before it was announced. In a parliamentary no confidence debate a few months later, Bokhin Polakun, who also attended the meeting as an adviser, was accused of leaking the news to Thaksin. He denied it. In 2004, Thaksin made him minister of interior (TN, 2 July 2001; KT, 27 September 1997).