This story is part of Forbes’ coverage of Thailand’s Richest 2023. See the full list here.
With Thailand’s tourism revival, King Power International’s duty-free outlets are buzzing again. The company, controlled by Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha and his family, swung to a net profit last year of 2.2 billion baht ($64 million) from a year earlier loss of 2.5 billion baht while revenue jumped 59% to 27.5 billion baht, according to a regulatory filing.
Thanks to this spurt, Aiyawatt’s fortune, which he shares with his family, more than doubled to $3.5 billion, earning him the No. 8 spot. King Power International has 11 duty-free shops in airports and tourist hotspots across Thailand. In March it announced plans to open two new outlets, one in Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport and the other in the city’s central business district.
The tourism uptick is likely to benefit another family investment: King Power Mahanakhon, a mixed-use Bangkok skyscraper that includes a Standard hotel and the highest observation deck in Thailand. The 78-story tower, billed as the country’s tallest, was acquired reportedly for 14 billion baht in 2018, only a few months before Aiyawatt’s father, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, died in a helicopter crash.
Analysts are bullish on the outlook for hotels. Rathawat Kuvijitrsuwan, the Bangkok-based senior vice president of advisory and asset management at JLL Hotels & Hospitality Group, Thailand, says in a May report: “We expect 4Q 2023 to be the first real high season in Bangkok after three years of pandemic.”
In February, Aiyawatt doubled down on the family’s investment in Leicester City Football Club (LCFC), converting over £194 million ($239 million) in loans to the club into equity. It was the second such move by the family. In 2013, three years after acquiring the English soccer club, the late Vichai turned a £103 million loan into equity. That paid off when the team, known as the Foxes, went on to win the Premier League championship in May 2016. It was knocked down a notch to the Championship League last month.
Aiyawatt, also known as “Top,” is CEO of King Power Group, the family holding company founded by his father, while his mother is chairwoman. Aiyawatt succeeded his father as chairman of LCFC.