Thailand’s billionaires in 2019

Forbes has released its 2019 billionaires list. It includes 31 Thai individuals and families.

To make matters a little easier, we have constructed a table where all persons with the same family name have been combined and we have listed just the top 10.

That aggregating mainly impacts the Chearavanont family who have several scions listed this year. Putting all of those individuals together reveals how vast the clan’s wealth is, expanding at a rate that means it rivals the king for economic power.

But, as usual, the king is missing from the list. This year that does seem rather odd as laws have been changed to make King Vajiralongkorn the personal owner of all crown property. Essentially, that is as it has been for a long time, but the current king just got rid of the quasi-legal mechanism to allow the government and the Crown Property Bureau to protest that the king’s property was not really his.

That charade is now gone, so Forbes should list him at number 1. A rough estimate of the king’s wealth would be at least $60 billion (using data from 2005, and estimating changes in stock and land values since then).

The table reveals how the top 3, including the king and his crown property, have moved well ahead of the rest in terms of measurable wealth. We do acknowledge that the fabulously wealthy are adept at hiding their personal wealth, so all those listed are probably a lot wealthier than these figures allow.

Corrected: The tycoons and the junta

This is a corrected post. We became aware that the search function we used at Forbes to list Thailand’s tycoons returned something other than a full list. We have now located a more reliable list at Forbes and have rewritten the post based on the correct data. Thanks to a reader for questioning us about the data, causing us to go back to the source.

At the same time, we remain cautious about the data given that the totals in the global list do not exactly match those in the Thailand list.

There’s been a lot of talk about the military dictatorship having done little for the economy. One group is benefiting. That’s the junta and its allies in state enterprises, those on the take, those raking in commissions and the various puppet appointments. But their takings, while huge by the standards of the average Thai, are not the measure of how the tycoons are doing.

That group are the richest Thais, mostly the Sino-Thai tycoons and a couple of foreigners who have made their fortune in Thailand.When we had the wrong data, we indicated that the wealth of the top 10 had decreased. This is corrected in the table below, showing a very large increase in wealth.

We know this from the listing in Forbes of the world’s US dollar billionaires and, now, from the list of Thailand’s billionaires. Over the years, we have listed the top 10, so we are sticking with that so that a comparison can be made.

The table compares 2014 wealth (Forbes 2015) and the year of the coup and the 2016 figures (Forbes 2017).

The totals for the top 10 show that their combined wealth has increased by almost $16 billion. The top two families have increased by more than $9billion.

When we had the data wrong we asked: How long will these economic whales put up with a military dictatorship that delivers economic decline? Now that the data has reversed the position, we can only imagine that the tycoons are loving the junta.

Rich still doing very well

Forbes has published its latest Thailand Rich List. There are no real surprises for the mega-rich in Thailand continue to do well through political instability and military coup. The ranking of Thailand’s 50 richest is available from Forbes.

CP’s agribusiness tycoon, the aging Dhanin Chearavanont, is the country’s richest man with a net worth of US$14.4 billion. Next is beverages and land tycoon, Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi,with a net worth of $13 billion.

The list does not include the monarchy, which is covered in another Forbes listing. The monarchy’s combined wealth, which is mostly managed by the Crown Property Bureau, is variously estimated at $40-50 billion. This is equivalent to the total combined wealth of the top 3-4 tycoons in this Forbes list.

Most of those on the list have close connections to the palace, although they are big enough to split their bets when there is political agitation. As we noted last year, since 2011, the assets of the mega-rich have increased very substantially, and this has continued in this listing.

Thaksin Shinawatra and his family ranked 10th, as they were in the last listing, with the same combined assets:

Dhanin Chearavanont; US$14.4 billion
Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi; $13 billion
Chirathivat family; $12.3 billion
Chalerm Yoovidhya; $9.6 billion
Krit Ratanarak; $4.7 billion
Vanich Chaiyawan; $3.95 billion
Santi Bhirombhakdi; $2.9 billion
Prasert Prasarttong-Osoth; $2.8 billion
Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha; $2.5 billion
Thaksin Shinawatra; $1.7 billion

Forbes states: “This list was compiled using shareholding and financial information obtained from the families and individuals, stock exchanges and analysts, the Stock Exchange of Thailand and regulatory agencies.” It is not clear whether it includes land holdings.

Updated: Political crisis and the rich

The 14 June 2014 issue of Forbes lists the 50 richest Thais/Thai families. With all of the political turmoil in Thailand in recent years, most of it claimed or asserted to be in support of the wealthy elite – recall the remarkable Vice clip of rich dipsticks in Ferraris – it might be thought that the wealthiest might have seen a decline in their fortunes. After all, the economy has struggled, several of the richest families kicked in loot to back the anti-democrats, and things just haven’t seemed conducive for the rich to add hugely to their fortunes. So what has happened?

Most years PPT has posted a list of the wealthiest, always noting that the list leaves off the wealthiest family. That’s the “Mahidols,” also known as the royal family. In 2011, the Forbes list was:

1. Dhanin Chearavanont,  $7.4 billion
2. Yoovidhya family, $5b
3. Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi,  $4.8b
4. Chirathivat family, $4.3b
5. Ratanarak family,  $2.5b
6. Aloke Lohia,  $2.1b
7. Bhirombhakdi family,  $2b
8. Vichai Maleenont,  $1.5b
9. Isara Vongkusolkit & family,  $1.4b
10. Praneetsilpa Vacharaphol & family,  $1.05b

The combined wealth of this top 10 was $32.05 billion, still quite a lot less than the royal family’s Crown Property Bureau.

What does the list look like in 2014? With a little adding together of the same families listed twice and lengthening to show changes, it is:

1. Sirivadhanabhakdi family, $12.9b
2. Chirathivat family, $12.1b
3. Dhanin Chearavanont, $11.5b
4. Yoovidhya family, $9.9b
5. Ratanarak family, $5.1b
6. Chaiyawan family, $3.9b
7. Bhirombhakdi family, $2.8b
8. Prasert Prasarttong-Osoth, $2.3b
9. Vichai Maleenont, $1.7b
10. Shinawatra family, $1.7b
11. Chatri Sophonpanich, $1.6b
12. Thirakomen family, $1.5b
13. Thongma Vijitpongpun, $1.4b
14. Prayudh Mahagitsiri & family, $1.4b
15. Keeree Kanjanapas, $1.4b
16. Bencharongkul & family, $1.3b
17. Aloke Lohia, $1.2b
18. Osathanugrah family, $1.2b
19. Wichai Thongtang, $1.1b
20. Isara Vongkusolkit & family, $1.1b

Praneetsilpa Vacharaphol & family dropped to No. 25 on the list but increased its wealth to $1.1b. Of the top 10 families in 2011, all but the Vongkusolkit family had increased their wealth, most of them very substantially.

By 2014, the combined wealth of the top 10 on the list had rocketed to $63.9 billion. We have no way of knowing what the current assets of the royals and CPB are at present – they don’t have to provide such trivial details to the public. All we can note is that the wealth of the top 10 is now about double the 2011 assets of the CPB.

The wealth of the Shinawatra family increased 4.25 times between 2011 and 2014, outstripping the growth of the top 10. However, others did well to. The Chirathivat family wealth increase by about 3 times and the Chaiyawan family at about the same rate as the Shinawatra family.

Update: Our writer yesterday has been admonished and, in the spirit of “good order,” was made to stand outside her condo displaying a dangerous 3-fingered salute for neglecting to link this post about the richest with those who were thought to have funded the anti-democrat movement. He is truly sorry.

Rich, rich, rich I

Only a day or so ago, PPT posted about inequality and the political power of the rich. Interestingly, this coincided with Forbes posting its list of Thailand’s billionaires. The top 10 are:

1. Dhanin Chearavanont & family worth $12.6 B, from agribusiness and more, and ranked in the top 60 richest on the planet.

2. Chirathivat family worth $12.3 B mostly in the retail sector

3. Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi of beer, liquor and property, worth $10.6 B

4. Yoovidhya family of Red Bull fame and fast car notoriety, worth $7.8 B

5. Krit Ratanarak, of Bank of Ayudhya and with television interests, worth $3.9 B

6. Chamnong Bhirombhakdi & family, worth $2.4 B, mainly from beer, and with a scion in the Democrat Party

7. Vanich Chaiyawan, worth $2.1 B, in insurance and a big shareholder in Charoen’s Thai Bev

8. Vichai Maleenont & family in media and entertainment, worth $2 B

9. Prasert Prasarttong-Osoth, worth $1.8 B from medical, health and aviation investment

10. Thaksin Shinawatra & family, worth $1.7 B, from various investments in property, mining and more.

Most of the list are paid-up monarchists and some have been active politically, using their wealth in various political ways. PPT isn’t sure if politics earns money for Thaksin or costs him a pile of loot at present. It certainly cost him plenty under various royalist governments.

Of course, the richest tycoon family in Thailand is actually the king and his family. With the stock market rises and boom in tourism, PPT’s back of the envelope calculation will have the rich royals at about $35-45 Billion this year.

PPT will have a follow-up post on the Forbes stories on these tycoons.

After the king, who are Thailand’s richest?

As usual, Forbes list of Thailand’s richest leaves off the king and royal family. However, they usually include them in the richest royals list out later in the year.

This year’s richest list generally sees the richest getting richer. As Forbes observes:

For a country seen by some outsiders to be beset by political turmoil and rural insurgency, never mind last fall’s calamitous flooding, Thailand has done remarkably well by its richest. Their collective wealth is up by better than 20% for a second straight year….

Many of Thailand’s wealthiest are looking to take on international rivals, on the strength of an expected 6% growth in the Thai economy this year.

The list of Thailand’s richest is here. The wealthiest is Dhanin Chearavanont who “boasts an estimated net worth of $9 billion.” He’s followed by the Chirathivat family with $6.9 billion, Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi worth $6.2 billion, the Yoovidhya family with $5.4 billion, Krit Ratanarak with $3.1 billion, the Bhirombhakdi family with $2.4 billion and the Maleenont family worth $1.8 billion. Quite a few royalists and Democrat Party supporters amongst this lot.

If the wealth of the top ten in the Forbes list is combined, then the total comes out roughly the same as the assets of the Crown Property Bureau.

 

Updated: Wealth, royal and other

Despite all of the bleating from business in Thailand regarding the red shirt protests in March, April and May, 91 dead and thousands injured in violent government crackdowns, all of the gloom about tourism falling and so on, the Thai economy – measured by the value of the baht, exports and the stock market – has done exceptionally well. As Forbes points out, the  SET 50 Index is up 20% since last year at this time.

Each year Forbes ranks Thailand’s wealthiest as “calculated using share prices and exchange rates as of Aug. 20. For privately held assets we estimated what they would be worth if public, using information from the Thailand Ministry of Commerce and other sources. This ranking, unlike the Forbes billionaires list, includes numerous family fortunes. Dhanin Chearavanont, for instance, is valued by himself in the billionaire ranks but counted here [in the Forbes listing] with his three brothers.”

The top-10 in the Forbes ranking for 2010 is:

1. Dhanin Chearavanont, US$7.0 billion

2. Chaleo Yoovidhya, US$4.2 b.

3. Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, US$4.15 b.

4. Chirathivat family, US$2.9 b.

5. Krit Ratanarak, US$1.7 b.

6. Aloke Lohia, US$1.25 b.

7. Chamnong Bhirombhakdi, US$1.2 b.

8. Thongma Vijitpongpun, US$1.15 b.

9. Vichai Maleenont, US$1.11 b.

10. Isara Vongkusolkit, US$1.1 b.

Forbes points out that 30 of the 40 on their full list “of the richest added to their fortunes” in the past year. Topping the list this year is “Dhanin Chearavanont, whose conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group has seen the value of its stock assets more than double over the past year…”.

Even the owners of the burned down Central World – the Chirathivat family – did very well and remain ranked at No. 4. Liquor tycoon Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi comes in at No. 3 and the Singha beer family Bhirombhakdi rank 7th. PPT picked these names out, at 1, 3, 4, and 7 because of their previous mentions at this blog for political connections with an support to the monarchy. They are core, card-carrying members of the Abhisit Vejjajiva regime and core members of the royalist elite. There are several more on the list of 40.

Of course, eagle-eyed readers will note that the wealthiest family in Thailand is missing from the list. That’s because the they appear on a very special list at Forbes that we posted on in July: “Thailand’s royal family again tops Forbes’ richest royals list. Forbes says: “Thailand’s King Bhumibol remains the world’s richest royal for the third year in a row, despite his country’s riots and turmoil. Royal assets are held under Thailand’s Crown Property Bureau, which benefited from stock market and real estate gains in 2009. As a result, his fortune remains stable at $30 billion…”. That’s more than 4 times the wealth of the Chearavanont family, at No. 1 above.

Update: That other wealthy Thai-in-exile, Thaksin Shinawatra (no. 23 on Forbes’ list) has turned up in Africa, with confirmed meetings with Nelson Mandela and his former wife Winnie. He is said to be involved with diamonds.