For Thailand’s oldest banking family, it’s a legacy-defining deal 25 years in the making. That’s how long Chartsiri Sophonpanich has been waiting to turn Bangkok Bank into a key regional player in Southeast Asia.
His winning takeover bid for Indonesia’s PT Bank Permata in December is a US$2.7 billion bet that now is the time to jettison decades of caution and secure his family’s legacy for a fourth generation.
It’s an uncharacteristically bold move – some analysts say risky – for the 60-year-old banker whose early ambitions were laid low by the Asian financial crisis. But after years of lagging behind rivals by playing it safe, the Permata acquisition could be Chartsiri’s last big chance to revitalise the US$9 billion lender that enjoyed breakneck growth under both his father and grandfather.
“Where there is danger, there is gain,” said Piti Sithi-Amnuai, the Thai lender’s 87-year-old chairman, who has worked at the bank for more than half a century, overlapping with Chartsiri’s grandfather Chin and father Chatri. “Chartsiri’s legacy is to grow Bangkok Bank even greater than his grandfather. I believe that is his aim, his goal.”
Chin Sophonpanich founded Bangkok Bank in 1944, when he branched out from selling construction materials and canned goods. He went on to become one of the region’s most prominent bankers, financing the empire-building of ethnic Chinese tycoons in Southeast Asia including Malaysia’s richest man Robert Kuok.