Krit Ratanarak

Krit Ratanarak (Thai: กฤตย์ รัตนรักษ์; rtgs: Krit Rattanarak; born 19 April 1946) is the Chairman of Bangkok Broadcasting & Television Company (operator of Channel 7) and head of one of Thailand’s leading family business groups. The Ratanarak family have substantial holdings in a number of Thai-based companies including Krungsri Bank, Siam City Cement, Allianz Ayudhya, Sri Ayudhya Capital, Matching Studio, Media of Medias and Eastern Star Real Estate as well as holding a majority stake in BBTV.^[1]

Family

Krit Ratanarak was born in 1946 and is the eldest of six children with five sisters, four of whom now live outside Thailand.^[2] His mother, Sasithorn, still lives in Bangkok.

The Ratanarak family are known to be very private; Forbes call them ‘a very secretive clan’^[3] and Krit’s son Chachchon has been described as being ‘influential while staying below the radar.^[4] The Ratanaraks are one of the few remaining ‘old money’ families in Thailand.^[5] Krit is the son of Chuan Ratanarak, who founded Bank of Ayudhya (known today as Krungsri Bank), Siam City Cement (producer of the Insee Cement brand) and Bangkok Broadcasting and Television ^[6] and was one of Thailand’s last great self-made business Titans.^[7] Krit took over the family businesses after the death of his father in 1993.

Career

Ratanarak is one of the most successful and businessmen in Thailand.^[3] He joined Bank of Ayudhya in 1972 becoming President in 1982 and CEO in 1990. In 1993 he became Chairman and CEO of the bank, Chairman of BBTV, Chairman of Siam City Cement and Chairman of Ayudhya Insurance.^[8] In the late 1990s, Ratanarak navigated Bank of Ayudhya and the other family businesses through the worst of the Asian financial crisis with the result that the Ratanaraks were one of only 8 business groups that had been in Thailand’s top 40 in 1979 to survive in the top rankings in 2009.^[9]

In the years after the crisis Ratanarak strengthened the major family businesses by introducing outside capital and international management expertise.^[8]

Ratanarak recapitalised Siam City Cement in 1998 in the process selling part of the family’s equity to Holderbank (later to become Holcim). Contemporary newspaper reports wrongly suggested that the sale of equity to Holderbank was used by the family to raise the funds required to recapitalize Bank of Ayudhya. However, as part of the terms of the sale, the full proceeds received by the family from Holderbank – as well as additional funds from the Ratanarak Group - were reinvested in Siam City Cement via a rights issue to recapitalize the business and the capital injected by the family into the bank came instead from contingency reserves.^[10] In 2013 the Ratanarak family controlled 47% of the equity in Siam City Cement which had a market value of US $3.2 billion and no significant debt with Holcim holding 27.5% of the shares.^[11] In 1998, prior to the deal with Holderbank, the family had controlled slightly more than 50% of the company.^[12]

While other banks closed or were nationalized, Ratanarak completed a recapitalization of Bank of Ayudhya,^[13] and the bank continued to improve its performance in the post-crisis aftermath. In 1996 before the crisis the bank had a market value of US $4 billion in 2014 prices^[14] and this had risen to US $7 billion in 2014.^[15] The family shareholding in the bank was reduced in 2007 from 35%^[16] to 25%^[11] to comply with a reduction in the maximum permitted holding under new banking regulations which came into force in 2008. The reduction in the family’s holding was taken up by GE Capital whom the family brought into the management of the bank in 2007 to install best practice.^[17] In 2013 GE Capital sold their holding to Japan’s MUFJ following losses incurred in the 2008 banking crisis,^[18] and a change in strategy by GE to reduce their exposure to financial services.^[19] In 2014 the Ratanarak family controlled 25% of the bank’s equity with the remaining equity held by MUFJ.^[11]

The Ratanarak Group emerged from the crisis with Ratanarak at the head of one of the top five business families in Thailand,^[13] and one of three of Thailand’s most powerful banking families along with the Sophonpanich and Lamsam families.^[20]

Since 1993, Ratanarak has added property companies Eastern Star and Grand Canal Land and media company Matching Maximise Solution to the family business group.

In 1981 Ratanarak became Thailand’s youngest senator at the age of 35, serving for four terms.^[21]

2010s

According to press reports in March 2012, Ratanarak is working to transform the Rama III area of Bangkok into a major commercial centre.^[22]

According to Forbes the Ratanarak family’s holdings in the group businesses in January 2015 were estimated to be worth US$5.4 billion, based on publicly known assets and excludes private assets and property.^[1] In 2012 the Thai publication ‘Which Family is Richest’ reported the Ratanarak family as having holdings in excess of US$10 billion since 1998 when other assets are included.^[23]

Personal life

Ratanarak is divorced with one son, Chachchon, born in 1972.^[1]

References

Bibliography

• Hiscock, Geoff, Asia's wealth club: who's really who in business -- the top 100 billionaires in Asia, Nicholas Brealey Pub., 1997, ISBN 1-85788-162-1