South China Morning Post
Advertisement
Advertisement
Hong Kong protests
Get more with myNEWS
A personalised news feed of stories that matter to you
Learn more
Dhanin Chearavanont, chairman of Thailand's largest agribusiness group, Charoen Pokphand (CP Group) on August 6, 2004. Photo: Reuters
BusinessCompanies

Thailand’s richest man calls for peace and order in Hong Kong, adding his voice to the chorus of condemnation against violence

  • Thailand's richest man Dhanin Chearavanont has bought three full-page newspaper advertisements in Hong Kong to call for an end to violence and return to order
  • Dhanin joins Hong Kong’s richest man Li Ka-shing, tycoon Gordon Wu and some of the city’s biggest companies in calling for peace
Hong Kong protests
Enoch Yiu
Enoch Yiu
Why you can trust SCMP

Dhanin Chearavanont, the Thai industrialist who heads one of Asia’s wealthiest families, has added his voice to a growing chorus of condemnation against ongoing violence in 12 weeks of street protests in Hong Kong, taking out advertisements to call for peace.

The head of Thailand’s Chearavanont family and senior chairman of the Charoen Pokphand Group (CP) called for peace and social order to return to Hong Kong’s streets, in front-page advertisements under his ethnic Chinese name Chia Kok Min in the Oriental Daily News, Sing Tao Daily and Ming Pao.

Dhanin, who turned 80 in April, is no stranger to Hong Kong. His investment holding company CP Pokphand listed in Hong Kong as early as in 1988, and his sprawling conglomerate is a shareholder in scores of publicly listed companies, including a 23.3 per cent as the largest stake owner of Ping An Insurance Group, China’s No. 1 insurer by capitalisation.

The Chinese-language advertisements add Dhanin’s voice to Li Ka-shing, head of Hong Kong’s wealthiest family, and Hopewell Holdings’ founder Gordon Wu Ying-sheung in urging for restraint on both sides of a political divide, as what began on June 9 as a peaceful march against a controversial extradition bill has transformed into almost three months of street violence.
Even though Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has declared the bill “dead,” her reluctance to withdraw it has spawned more rallies, which have deteriorated as protesters clashed with police regularly.
Dhanin Chearavanont, chairman and CEO of Charoen Pokphand Group, with Jack Ma, chairman of Alibaba Group Holding, during Ant Financial Services’ press conference in Hong Kong in November 2016. Photo: SCMP/Xiaomei Chen
Hong Kong’s economy, squeezed by a year-long trade war between the US and China, has taken a beating from the ongoing protests, with retail sales and visitor numbers adversely affected in the normally peaceful city. Economic growth slowed in the second quarter, putting the city at risk of a technical recession in the third if rallies keep up, economists say.

The shares of CP Pokphand, which had been unchanged this year, fell 2.9 per cent on Tuesday to an intraday low of HK$0.67 on the Hong Kong exchange.

Dhanin is the youngest of four brothers in the Chearavanont family, the wealthiest in Thailand with a combined fortune estimated at US$36.6 billion by Forbes. The family business stretches from real estate to supermarkets, and is the world’s largest provider of livestock and animal feed.

The family conglomerate was founded by Dhanin’s father Chia Ek Chor and his brother Choncharoen when they opened a shop in 1921, selling seeds imported from China to Thai farmers, according to Forbes.

Dhanin was CP's chairman and chief executive for 48 years until his 2017 retirement, when he passed the chairmanship of the company to his eldest son Soopakij, and the vice chairmanship to his younger son Suphachai.

CP Group is based in Thailand but has invested in 20 countries with over 200 firms employing 350,000 globally in a range of businesses in food, supermarkets, retail, distribution and telecommunications, according to the company's website.

Hong Kong tycoons were not the only ones to call for peace. HSBC, Standard Chartered, and Bank of China (Hong Kong) – the three currency issuing banks in the city – joined Bank of East Asia in taking out advertisements to urge for calm.

Sixteen of the city’s largest developers including Li’s Cheung Kong signed under the Real Estate Developers Association (Reda) in calling for peace, while the ‘Big Four’ accounting firms and the city’s hometown carrier Cathay Pacific Airways also issued statements.

Post