Deals
A Thai Billionaire Is Set to Reclaim a Lost Flagship Business. There May Be a Catch
- CP Group to regain Asia retail network with $10.6 billion bid
- Dhanin dumped Lotus to avoid group bankruptcy in Asian crisis
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Thai billionaire Dhanin Chearavanont often vowed that he would reclaim a lost flagship of his family’s business after being forced to divest its Lotus retail chain to Tesco Plc at the height of the Asian financial crisis in 1998.
Dhanin, who turns 81 next month, is about to fulfill that promise, after his Charoen Pokphand Group reached a $10.6 billion deal with the British retailer for a network of more than 2,000 hypermarket and grocery stores across Thailand and Malaysia. The outlets were renamed long ago to highlight the Tesco brand.