Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi

Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi is a Thai billionaire businessman.

He is the founder of Thai Beverage, the chairman of conglomerate TCC Group and Fraser and Neave, Ltd(F&N). Sirivadhanabhakdi family is now Thailand's largest property developer and landlord of 630,000 rai, plus commercial and retail buildings in Singapore. He also owns 50 hotels in Asia, the US, UK and Australia, including Plaza Athénée in Manhattan and The Okura Prestige Bangkok.

Charoen started by supplying distilleries producing Thai whiskey, which were a state-run monopoly at the time. Through the contacts he made, he acquired a licence to produce his own alcoholic drinks. All liquor production was state-owned at the time, and Charoen was able to get rights to 15 percent of the market.

In 1985, the remaining 85 percent of state licenses were opened to bids. Charoen was able to take out a US$200 million loan using his large stocks of alcohol as collateral and soon after won 100 percent of the concessions. With this monopoly, Charoen's beverage companies were able to return US$550 million in royalties to Thailand’s excise department in 1987, five percent of the national budget at the time.

On 7 February 2016 TCC Group announced that it would buy a controlling 58.6 percent stake in Thai hypermarket operator Big C Supercenter for €3.1 billion from Groupe Casino of France. Big C is Thailand's second-largest hypermarket operator after Tesco's Thai unit, and has a market capitalisation of 163.25 billion baht (US$4.6 billion). Charoen's acquisition of Big C would boost the tycoon's retail presence in Thailand. He owns Berli Jucker PCL, the listed retail arm of TCC.

In 1988, King Bhumibol of Thailand granted the family the name “Sirivadhanabhakdi”.