Who will be Thailand’s next prime minister? Billionaire Dhanin Chearavanont of CP Group might have an idea
- The mogul sparked speculation over his political ambitions after his resignation from the chairmanship of one of the conglomerate’s key businesses
- Should he become premier or a senator, he will also have to give up his positions at various parts of Thailand’s largest private company
Dhanin Chearavanont has spent six decades building the Charoen Pokphand Group (CP) into a global empire spanning everything from agriculture and food to telecommunications and e-commerce – not to mention property development, automobiles, and finance – but he may have even greater ambitions in the political arena.
The billionaire – commonly referred to as “Chao Sua”, a name Thais use for business moguls of Chinese descent – is known for his expansion of the near-century-old conglomerate to a scale reminiscent of Korean chaebol or Japanese zaibatsu. Dhanin and his three brothers control 51 per cent of CP’s shares.
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Dhanin stepped down on April 24, just days after his 80th birthday, citing “other duties” that kept him from remaining in the position. To people familiar with the company, his resignation was long overdue.
“He has said many times that by the time he was 60 or 65, it is time for the next generation to replace him,” said Anusorn Tamajai, board member of energy conglomerate Bangchak Bioethanol and Dhanin’s former assistant.
CP Group, in a letter to the South China Morning Post after this article was published, said Dhanin’s resignation as chairman of the boards for both CP Foods and CP All – which operates the 7-Eleven convenience store franchise in Thailand – was part of a “gradual succession management process”.
“It is therefore not as the article suggested for senior chairman Dhanin to pursue a political career in any form,” the letter said.
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The CP empire is still expanding. On April 27, days after Dhanin’s resignation, the State Railway of Thailand revealed that a consortium led by CP – which included China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) – would be awarded a 224 billion baht concession to build a high-speed railway linking three airports in the kingdom.
The undertaking is part of the Eastern Economic Corridor, the mega industrial estate that is one of the ruling junta’s flagship projects. It will connect the corridor with the Don Muang, Suvarnabhumi and U-Tapao airports, as well as Thailand’s major deep-sea port of Laem Chabang.
According to Piyasak Manasant, an analyst at Siam Commercial Bank, CP’s partnership with CRCC bodes well, as CP can rely on the Chinese firm’s expertise even though the Thai conglomerate had not previously invested in transport.
Bangchak Bioethanol board member Anusorn played down the possibility of a political future for his former boss, saying Dhanin had “no political ambition”. Instead, he thinks Dhanin should lead CP to more overseas success.
“Now is the time for the CP Group to expand further particularly abroad,” he said. “It is one of Thailand’s truly international companies.”
CP’s estimated overall earnings from 19 companies listed across stock exchanges in Bangkok, Shanghai and Hong Kong are over US$400 billion.
CP Foods, which operates the group’s core agro-food businesses, earned 541 million baht in revenue last year, 67 per cent of which came from its operations outside Thailand. In the future, the company’s main revenue will be from countries such as Vietnam, the Philippines and Russia, where some branches of its businesses are based.
Last year, CP All raked in revenue of 527 billion baht (US$16.4 billion) while the group’s True Corporation, one of the country’s three largest telecommunications firms, earned 177 billion baht (US$5.5 billion).
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In 2017, Forbes named the Chearavanont family as the fourth richest in Asia, with a net worth of US$36.6 billion. Dhanin’s net worth is US$16.5 billion as of this month, according to the American business magazine, making him the world’s 75th richest person.
CP has had a presence in the Chinese market since the late 1970s, when it opened a branch in Shenzhen just as the country was opening up to the world. In 2017, Dhanin said animal feed produced in China accounted for 30 per cent of the group’s business, and that in coming years China would receive the largest share CP’s overseas investment.
Last November, Dhanin’s nephew Chatchaval Chearavanont bought Fortune, a business magazine that was formerly part of the Time Inc stable, for $150m.
This article was updated on May 13, 2019 with comments by CP Group.
