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In March 2023, when Su Xuming's wife Zhou Meiman died, Princess Sirindhorn of Thailand was present to preside over the sprinkling ceremony, and Princess Sirivan and other royal family members also appeared, and a Thai royal family member took turns to wake for him every day, which shows the influence of his family in Thailand. So, from a poor boy in the slums to the richest man in Thailand, how did Su Xuming stand out in the treacherous business war, and how did his rich and beautiful daughter become one of the "Top 20 Strong Women in Asian Business"?
Text丨Financial gossip female author: Shu Ye
The daughter of the Thai wine king smashed 1 billion yuan to create a world-class CBD
Recently, the daughter of Thai billionaire Su Xuming unveiled a 1 billion baht investment plan to upgrade Bangkok's "Empire State Building" into a world-class CBD, attracting multinational companies to set up offices here and build a series of luxurious high-end restaurants.
The daughter of the Su family is originally from Guangdong, China, and although their family has always been low-key, their influence in Thailand should not be underestimated.
The Su family is a chaebol family in Thailand, and Su Xuming has become the "richest man in Thailand" with a net worth of 100 billion yuan many times, and is in the top three of Thailand's rich list all year round. He owns the largest brewing company in Thailand, with a market share of more than 80%, and is worthy of the name "Thai Wine King".
In March 2023, when Su Xuming's wife Zhou Meiman died, Princess Sirindhorn of Thailand was present to preside over the sprinkling ceremony, and Princess Sirivan and other royal family members also appeared, and a Thai royal family member took turns to wake for him every day, which shows the influence of his family in Thailand.
So, from a poor boy in the slums to the richest man in Thailand, how did Su Xuming stand out in the treacherous business war, and how did his rich and beautiful daughter become one of the "Top 20 Strong Women in Asian Business"?
The "richest man in Thailand" was once born in the "slum".
Successfully fought a business war with Carlsberg
In Thailand, Su Xuming is a well-known winemaking giant, monopolizing 80% of Thailand's wine market.
He is currently the owner of TCC Group in Thailand and Frasers Group in Singapore, and his Elephant Beer has a market share in Thailand equivalent to the sum of Snowflake and Tsing Beer in China.
According to **, Su Xuming's industry can account for 9% of Thailand's total GDP in terms of economic contribution.
Su Xuming has also repeatedly topped the "richest man in Thailand". In 2020, on the Hurun Rich List, Su Xuming became the "richest man in Thailand" with a wealth of 140 billion yuan, leaving the Xie family of CP Group behind.
Su Xuming.
In Thailand, people always like to compare the Su Xuming family and the Chia Tai Xie family, they have all been "the richest man in Thailand", they are both from Chaoshan, they also love to reposition the Chinese market, and their children are all "rich second generations" with business skills.
Today, Su Xuming's TCC Group has businesses in the fields of winemaking, real estate, finance, and retail. It is hard for Thais to imagine that life without TCC Group and CP Group is like living without Samsung and LG in Koreans.
It is also difficult for them to think that the richest man in Thailand was once born in the "slums".
Su Xuming was born in a Thai Chinese family, and his ancestral home is Chenghai, Shantou, Guangdong. His father was originally a street vendor, and later went south to settle in Thailand, with a total of 11 children, Su Xuming, who was born in 1944, is the sixth.
Due to his poor family, Su Xuming dropped out of school at the age of 9 to work, and became a delivery man for a winery at the age of 15. After working in society for a while and accumulating some experience, the half-grown teenager thought about starting his own business.
Before setting up his own portal, the primary question Su Xuming faced was: which direction is better?
After some market research, Su Xuming found that in Thailand, from high-ranking officials and nobles to ordinary people, they all like to drink a few glasses of wine during festivals or entertaining relatives and friends.
In 1960, 16-year-old Su Xuming took all his savings to start a business, opened his first distillery, produced whisky, and obtained a whisky brewing license through the accumulated contacts.
In order to quickly occupy the market, Su Xuming took the initiative to reduce profits and fight with competitors. At first, he was able to get some benefits out of it. However, with the escalation of the ** war, the newly established distillery began to suffer serious losses.
After that, Su Xuming made an important decision to voluntarily withdraw from the competition and instead focus on low-grade whisky with lower sales costs in order to remain profitable.
In 1985, when Thailand further liberalized the development of the liquor industry, Su Xuming used his large inventory of liquor as collateral to obtain a loan of 200 million US dollars and won a 100% liquor license. During the same period, beer that is cheaper than whiskey began to become popular in Thailand. Su Xuming seized the opportunity to shift the focus of the brewery to beer producers.
In 1988, at the age of 44, Su Xuming bought Red Bull Distillery and expanded into the high-end wine market. In the same year, he upgraded the distillery and founded TCC Group.
If Su Xuming has been accumulating strength in the early stage, then he can become the "King of Thai Wine" thanks to the cooperation with the world's fifth largest brewing group - Carlsberg of Denmark.
Carlsberg beer.
At that time, Carlsberg had managed to take the number one position in the market in Malaysia, and they decided to continue their overseas expansion and set their sights on Thailand. To compete with rival Heineken, Carlsberg needed to work with local Thai companies.
At that time, Su Xuming's TCC Group had a strong distribution channel in Thailand and a strong desire to develop beer, so the two hit it off. In 1991, TCC formed a joint venture with Carlsberg to produce Carlsberg beer in Thailand.
In order to obtain this opportunity for cooperation, Su Xuming voluntarily gave up the "naming right" and agreed to name it in the name of Carlsberg. So, in 1991, Su Xuming and Carlsberg jointly launched the Thai version of "Carlsberg" beer.
In order to open the market for the Thai version of "Carlsberg", Su Xuming adopted the strategy of "** sales", and he took advantage of TCC's distribution advantages to require distributors to buy a part of Carlsberg while introducing whisky, without negotiation. However, Su Xuming is not willing to make wedding dresses for others all the time.
Three years later, Su Xuming finally seized the opportunity to use the beer technology he learned from Carlsberg, plus excess capacity, to start launching his own brand, Chang Beer. In less than a month, the lower-priced Elephant beer, produced by Carlsberg, beat out other beers on the market and became a huge success.
A year later, Elephant Beer became Thailand's best-selling beer brand. At this time, Carlsberg reacted, it turned out that Su Xuming borrowed its brand advantages and opened up a world for his products.
Carlsberg was also unhappy, so in 2003 he asked to withdraw from the joint venture with Su Xuming, but was sued by Su Xuming in court. In the end, Carlsberg lost the lawsuit and compensated Su Xuming 1200 million US dollars, defeated Maicheng, Su Xuming gained a firm foothold in the Thai market.
"Thai Wine King" is a luxury hotel in China
Keen on mergers and acquisitions to expand the business territory
No one expected that after Su Xuming became the "King of Thai Wine", his ambitions swelled rapidly, and this time he set his sights on Asia.
After 2000, Su Xuming took a heavy position in the Chinese market, first acquiring Huashi Beer in Kunming, and then acquiring Yunnan Yulinquan Liquor in 2005, making it the first foreign-controlled liquor company in China.
Not only that, Su Xuming has also set foot in the Chinese hotel industry. In August 2006, TCC Group wholly acquired the Sakura Hotel in Kunming, Yunnan Province for US$16.25 million, and in September of the same year, it purchased the Kunming Bunker Hotel for more than 200 million yuan.
In 2010, Su Xuming introduced the two brands of Holiday and Crown under InterContinental Hotels Group, and transformed the Sakura Hotel into a four-star Holiday Inn, and the Bunker Hotel was transformed into a five-star Crowne Plaza Hotel, which is also the first five-star hotel in Kunming.
Crowne Plaza Hotel.
Of course, in addition to the Chinese market, Su Xuming has also made great gains in Southeast Asia.
In 2013, Su Xuming competed with Singapore's wealthy businessman Li Zong, and won Singapore's fourth largest listed real estate company "Frasers Group" for 11 billion US dollars, whose business includes beverages, real estate, printing**, and then part of its business has been spun off and listed, becoming a commercial "giant" in Southeast Asia.
At the same time, Su Xuming further strengthened his position in Thailand and even Southeast Asia through mergers and acquisitions. First, in 2003, Su Xuming carried out a restructuring of TCC Group, merging 63 beverage and liquor companies under its umbrella into the Thai Brewing Company.
In 2005, Su Xuming planned to list Thai liquor on the Thai Stock Exchange, breaking the previous Thai IPO record. However, due to the fact that Thailand is a Buddhist country and has been subjected to **, Su Xuming can only withdraw the listing application. The following year, Su chose to have Thai brewery listed in Singapore.
In 2013, Thai Brewery acquired Fraser and Ne**E 87., a listed company integrating beverage, real estate and publishing businesses5% equity. In 2017, Thai Brewery acquired a 54% stake in Saigon Beer, Vietnam's largest beer company, for another US$4.8 billion**.
Today, Thai Brewing is one of the largest beverage companies in Southeast Asia, with best-selling brands including Elephant Beer, Mekong Beer, Double Lion Rum, EST Coke, 100 Plus Soda, Oishi Green Tea, and the company also produces several brands of Scotch whisky, vodka, gin and more in Europe.
Later, Su Xuming also began to diversify his operations, involved in retail, finance and other fields, with the intention of building a huge multinational group.
In the retail sector, he acquired Big C, a large supermarket chain in Thailand. Big C acquired Carrefour in Thailand in 2010 and quickly occupied the Thai market, was listed on the Thai ** Stock Exchange in 2012, and was delisted after the acquisition was announced by the Su Xuming family in 2016.
At present, the Big C hypermarket territory covers Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, etc. In September 2023, Big C laid out the Hong Kong market, acquired the Hong Kong chain of lifestyle department stores "Abtai", and plans to apply for listing in Hong Kong, China and Thailand next year.
In addition, Thailand's KFC and Starbucks are also Su Xuming's "things in the palm of his hand".
In 2017, Thai Brewery took over the operation rights of 224 directly operated KFC stores in Thailand from Parkson Thailand for 11.3 billion baht**In 2019, Su Xuming's company also won the exclusive right to operate Starbucks Thailand, directly controlling 327 Starbucks stores in Thailand.
In the financial field, Su Xuming has invested in banks in Southeast Asia, and he has first invested in Thailand's Ayutthaya Bank, Bangkok Commercial Bank, First Bank of Thailand, Bank of Asia and Henghua Bank.
Today, Su Xuming has more than 300 subsidiaries and more than 60,000 employees, and TCC Group is one of the world's top 500 companies, making it one of the top multinational companies in Thailand. His industries cover winemaking, real estate, hotels, finance, catering, retail, agriculture, tourism, etc., and he pays 12 billion yuan in taxes every year.
With such a huge industry, Su Xuming has also been cultivating heirs in recent years, and his five children and their spouses all work in the family business and are responsible for different businesses.
The "rich second generation" of the family took over as president
Bai Fumei's daughter is a strong woman in the Asian business world
At present, the "rich second generation" of Su Xuming's family has taken over the baton, Gongzi is the president of the family business, and the daughter is in charge of the listed real estate company, and has been shortlisted for the "Top 20 Strong Women in Asian Business".
Among them, the eldest son Su Huarong is in charge of the Thai brewing company, and accompanies his father to attend various activities all the year round, as if he is the inheritor of the Thai industry and the first person in the main territory of the family.
The eldest son, Su Huarong.
The second son, Su Huaqin, lives in Singapore all the year round and is responsible for Singapore's industry. After Su Xuming's acquisition of Frasers Group, Su Huaqin became the president of Frasers Properties, focusing on overseas expansion. Due to the presence of Frasers Property in China, Su Huaqin has also made many appearances to visit Chinese entrepreneurs.
According to the 2023 first-half performance report, Frasers Property's half-year revenue was **15., driven by increased residential sales in Singapore and China and the recovery of the hotel business6% to $1,946.3 million, net profit increased by 522% to $197.24 million, earnings per share of 502 points, an increase of 53%.
Su Xuming's son is excellent, and his daughter is even more reliable. On the 2021 Forbes list, Su Xuming's white rich and beautiful daughter Wanlapa Daisola was shortlisted for the "Top 20 Strong Women in Asian Business" and attracted the attention of the outside world.
Wanlapa Desola (top row, first from right).
Wan Lapa is currently the female head of Asset World (AWC) in Thailand. In 2001, Wanlapa joined Thai Charoen Corpto develop the family's real estate business. In 2018, she became the CEO of AWC, a family real estate company.
In 2019, a year after Wanlapa took the helm of AWC, the company was successfully listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand. At that time, AWC's IPO was as high as 48 billion baht, or about 1.6 billion US dollars, making it the largest IPO in Thailand.
Su Xuming (second from left), his wife Zhou Meiman (second from right), and his daughter (first from right).
Recently, Su's daughter unveiled a 1 billion baht AWC investment plan.
She plans to upgrade Bangkok's most famous "Empire State Building" into a world-class CBD business district that will attract major global companies and build a number of high-end hotels and restaurants.
One of the most special is that the "EA Kitchen Restaurant" on the 56th floor will be the first rooftop Thai restaurant in Thailand and the highest Chinese restaurant in Thailand, created by multiple Michelin-starred chefs, and will officially open in the second quarter of next year. The 60-storey "Nobu Bangkok Rooftop Bar" is the world's tallest and largest restaurant and bar under the nobu brand.
In fact, Wanlapa has made frequent moves in recent years, and her ambitions in real estate have been fully revealed.
Previously, she had a major development plan for Bangkok's Chinatown, and she also led AWC to invest more than 50 billion baht to support the "Pattaya-Chiang Mai" project, which aims to develop the two areas into world-class tourist destinations.
In 2022, AWC also announced a partnership with Disney to create a strategic attraction at Bangkok's Riverside Quay Night Market.
Wanlapa Desola.
Now, on its fourth anniversary, AWC has transformed from a real hotel company into a multi-faceted group that operates hotels, retail and wholesale markets, and offices.
According to public data, AWC's revenue this year is up 10% from last year, with revenue exceeding 14 billion baht, which has exceeded the level of 2020, and the hotel business is still performing well, followed by commercial real estate and office business.
From 2023 to 2027, in the expansion plan for the next 5 years, AWC aims to invest more than 100 billion baht, of which 60 billion baht will be used for the development of the company's projects and 40 billion baht for business acquisitions, through which it will gradually develop and get involved in new projects.
On the 2023 Forbes Thailand Rich List, 79-year-old Su Xuming has become the third richest person in Thailand with a net worth of 13.6 billion US dollars, about 98 billion yuan, second only to the Xie family of CP Group and Xu Shuen of Red Bull Group, and the fourth is the Zheng family of Central Group, and the four richest people in Thailand are all Chinese.
These billionaires often start from scratch and break through the world with their ingenuity, and people are often most concerned about whether they can be rich for more than three generationsAnd it depends on the ability of their children.
Looking at it now, at least the old Su family is not worried.
Reference: Ranking among the top three richest people in Thailand, how did Su Xuming counterattack from a delivery man to a "wine king"?>> Whale Dimension.
Spend 50 billion baht!This Chenghai-born Asian business woman wants to create a new landmark in Thailand's tourism industry.