Addendum
Thai billionaire and Leicester City team proprietor expands empire to Thai AirAsia
July 1st 2016
Fifty eight year old Thai duty free tycoon, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, whose Leicester City Football team won the 2016 English Premier League, has added a substantial holding in a local LCC to his portfolio of airport retail outlets, hotels, polo tournaments and top league English football. Read More »
The billionaire owner of monopoly duty free concession, King Power, at Bangkok’s major airport, Suvarnabhumi, paid US$225.8 million to Tassapon Bijleveld for 39% of Thai AirAsia. Before the latest transaction, the Bangkok-based LCC was 55% owned by Asian Aviation, a company controlled by Thai AirAsia CEO Bijleved, private investors and Tony Fernandes’ AirAsia Group (45%). Bijleveld will retain a five per cent share of the carrier. Thai AirAsia is one of the more successful AirAsia Group franchises.
Vichai has a huge public profile in Britain after his previously under-rated football team, “The Foxes”, overtook the titans of English football to win the Premiership league trophy this year. Vichai, who bought Leicester City in 2010 for US$58 million and is a genuine football fan, is no retiring tycoon. He divides his time between Bangkok, the family’s west London home, a Berkshire polo estate and Leicester. He often travels by helicopter to watch his team play, along with his son, Top, the vice chairman of The Foxes and a serious polo player. Last year, the King Power Foxes polo team won the Queen’s Cup and the Gold Cup.
A Buddhist with an estimated US$3 billion fortune, Vichai has remained true to his Thai heritage despite his globetrotting existence. Before he made his decision to appoint Claudio Ranieri as his football team’s coach 18 months ago, monks from the Wat Traimit Withhayaram Woraviharn (Golden Temple) in Bangkok had to agree to the decision. The temple’s monks are regularly flown from Thailand to Britain to attend Leicester City games and bless the pitch.
