5 Thais among 50 powerful Asian businesswomen

The list was unveiled last week, ahead of the celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8 under the "women empowerment" theme.

The five Thai businesswomen on the list are Chadatip Chutrakul, chief executive of Siam Piwat and Siam Paragon Development; Somporn Juangroongruangkit, president and director of Thai Summit Group; Sunee Seripanu, CEO and chairwoman of MC Group; Wandee Khunchornyakong, chairwoman and CEO of SPCG; and Yuwadee Chirathivat, CEO of Central Department Store Group.

The list covers several sectors in 16 countries in this region. To prepare this year’s list, Forbes applied the criteria of company sales, the positions of the candidates in their companies, and the level of their participation at work.

Chadatip, 54, was applauded for Siam Piwat’s and Siam Paragon Development’s successful business strategies. Among privately owned Siam Piwat’s partners in the project is a Charoen Pokphand property company headed by Tipaporn Chearavanont, daughter of Thailand’s second-richest man.

Somporn, 64, and her late husband built Thai Summit into an auto- and motorcycle-parts powerhouse with 23,000 employees and operations in seven countries in addition to Thailand. Annual sales are estimated at around US$2 billion (Bt65 billion).

Ranked No 28 on the Forbes Asia list of richest Thais, with wealth of $900 million, Somporn is a founder and former president of the Thai LPGA (Ladies Professional Golf Association). Her Pattana Golf & Sports Resort boasts a 27-hole golf course and golf academy.

Sunee, 50, has led MC Group for almost two decades, turning it into one of Southeast Asia’s leading producers of jeans wear, with 2013 revenue of $236 million. In 2014 it added 114 points of sale within Thailand to boost its network to 819 locations and furthered its international expansion, adding Vietnam to sales outlets in Laos and Myanmar.

Sunee has also stepped up diversification, highlighted by the 2013 acquisition of Time Deco, a watch company, and the promotion of a wider range of brands that includes MC Pink (women’s casual wear), Blues Brothers (premium jeans) and Mc Mc (value jeans). Sunee owns 45 per cent of MC Group.

While other Thai companies stagnated amid political turmoil last year, shares of SPCG, a builder and operator of solar plants, surged 35 per cent. This explained why Wandee Khunchornyakong, 56, was one of the most powerful businesswomen.

Wandee founded the company in 1996, but business boomed only in recent years. With Japanese partner Kyocera, SPCG has constructed 36 solar photovoltaic farms in Thailand since 2010; it plans to increase energy capacity by 67 per cent to 500 megawatts by 2019. Further expansion should include its rooftop solar-power construction.

Ranked No 48 on the Forbes Asia list of wealthiest Thais, with net worth of $345 million, 43 per cent owned by her, Wandee stands to gain from an estimated tripling of SPCG’s profits in 2014. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in December cited her for "leading a women-powered solar-energy transformation".

Wandee is one of 27 newcomers to this year’s list. They also include Noni Purnomo, president and director of Indonesia’s Blue Bird Group Holding; Lee Boo-jin, president and CEO of South Korea’s Hotel Shilla; Sonia Cheng, CEO of Hong Kong’s Rosewood Hotel Group and executive director of New World Development; and Helen Yuchengco Dee, chairman of Philippines’ Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.

Yuwadee now oversees Central Department Store Group’s expansion in Thailand and overseas. Last year the company’s first stores opened in Vietnam (under the new Robins name), along with another Central store in Jakarta. Malaysia will join the Central map in 2016 or 2017. Meantime, its La Rinascente brand, purchased in 2011, is building a new store in Rome under her guidance.