Oprettet af PL d. 14/04-2010 12:34
#2
Overskriften på denne tråd er:
Thailand: Udlandet står bag uro.
Det passer fint med den ekstremt ultra-nationalistiske holdning PAD står for, og især Sondhi Limpindtongcool (!).
Hvem er han?
Såmænd ikke andet end en falleret biznessman og kvart ell. halv-kineser der red med på Ponzi/Casino økonomien i Thailand op til krakket i 1997, og som har et indgroet had til både Thaksin og alt vestligt:
"At his financial peak, Thai media magnate Sondhi Limthongkul had all the accoutrements of a successful Asian tycoon.
Sitting atop his carefully diversified global conglomerate, Sondhi was often seen escorting Chinese screen goddess Gong Li.
His ambitious vision was to move into new markets and buy up the publications there. When he didn’t like the publications on offer, he simply started his own.
His empire, built on deals, promissory notes and predictions of exponential economic growth, also included a wide range of non-media businesses.
He led a project for the first satellite ever to be launched over Laos; he owned a hotel in China’s Yunnan province, ran a cement factory in Vietnam, and set up a regional business conference company.
Building on his domestic media success, Sondhi started a Hong Kong-based regional business magazine, Asia Inc; bought up a California lifestyle magazine, Buzz; launched a Bangkok-based regional newspaper, Asia Times; and tied in with numerous specialised regional titles, such as the Singapore-based Asian Dentist.
Managed from his tastefully restored, colonial-style headquarters along the Chao Phraya River, Sondhi’s businesses often seemed to have no link or logic beyond his ownership or control.
Riding on Thailand’s dramatic economic boom, everything Sondhi touched seemed to turn to gold. When people questioned how he could raise so much money so fast, he brushed off the queries by replying: “I am just a journalist who got lucky.”
Looking now at Sondhi’s Hong Kong-based international empire, his claim of relying on luck, which faltered ahead of Asia’s regional financial crisis in 1997, appears only too true.
After registering his first Hong Kong company, Manager International Company, in 1990, Sondhi’s empire picked up pace and scope. Within a few years he was registering up to four new companies a year and assigning them increasingly expansive names. M China International soon joined Asia Initiatives and Asia Network Publications. By 1995, Sondhi’s international empire included a dozen companies registered in Hong Kong alone.
Like many Asian tycoons, Sondhi wove a complex web of companies that allowed him to exert maximum control as indirectly as possible.
He accomplished this through a series of cross-shareholdings.
Sondhi himself usually kept few direct holdings in any of the companies, but ultimately was in control through his ownership of the holding companies. These holding companies included his favourite, M Group, and other holding companies registered in the British Virgin Islands.
His two-year attempt to run Asia Times, a regional daily newspaper, is a good example of this structure.
Sondhi, like several other M Group executives, only owned a token amount of the newspaper’s stock. The bulk of the company was owned by Manager International, which was, in turn, mostly owned by the M Group.
Such structures offer many benefits, including minimal taxation and maximum protection in case of financial difficulties. To their chagrin, creditors and former employees of Asia Times quickly discovered how easily this structure allowed Sondhi to distance himself from personal responsibility when the organisation which he had sworn was his personal dream collapsed.
By 1996, cracks began to appear in the restoration work of Sondhi’s sprawling colonial-era headquarters and financial strains began to weigh on his empire. Employees in many Sondhi-linked companies faced delayed salary payments and suppliers often received little more than empty promises.
Using the complex structure of the international cross-holdings, Sondhi fed those owed money with the refrain: “The money is in the pipeline, it just has to work its way through the system over to you.”
When the money finally ran out, Sondhi’s international empire ended with a whimper, not a bang.
The Lao satellite’s base station along the Mekong river was unceremoniously abandoned; his Hong Kong-based flagship magazine, Asia Inc, was bought out by staff, and Asian Advertising and Marketing was purchased by a foreign partner.
Sondhi himself took a strong stance on debt owed to foreigners, urging fellow Thai debtors to stop repaying foreign debt.
Under Hong Kong’s strict legal system, his companies began to wind up at a quick pace, with three companies facing liquidation in 2000 and 2001. This contrasts with Thailand, where company offices remained open for months after business operations had ceased.
Nonetheless, while creditors in many countries laid claim on Sondhi’s money, some of his lesser-known overseas assets appeared untouched by the collapse of his empire.
A former manager of Lijiang’s Grand Hotel in Yunnan Province said Sondhi retained his stake in the property at least through 1999.
Other Hong Kong-registered companies in which Sondhi is a director remain active, including Kingstrike Limited, M China International Limited and Four S Corporation Limited.
Now Sondhi’s only international profile is the mysterious website of his former regional newspaper, Asia Times. The paper ceased publication long ago, but the publication’s website is still regularly updated."
http://sanpaworn....om/?id=226
Sammenkog: Personligt fjendskab mellem Thaksin og Limthongkul er højst sandsynligt den egentlige årsag til den nuværende situation i Thailand!
PL
Redigeret af PL d. 14/04-2010 12:44
