Just 500 People Own 36% of All the Equity in Thailand’s Firms

(Bloomberg) -- About 36% of Thailand’s corporate equity is concentrated in the hands of just 500 people, highlighting wealth inequality in the country, a study released by the Bank of Thailand’s research institute shows.

Each of these 500 on average amasses 3.1 billion baht ($102 million) in company profits annually, according to the report from the Puey Ungphakorn Institute for Economic Research. In contrast, average yearly household income is about $10,000.

Thailand’s private sector is dominated by tycoons at the helm of sprawling conglomerates. The gap between the well-off and the rest in a population of 69 million is among the challenges for the economy, according to the Word Bank.

“Magnates arise in Thailand from institutional factors that privilege certain businesses,” Krislert Samphantharak, the author of the study and the executive director of the Puey Ungphakorn institute, said in an interview.

The institute said Thailand needs to promote competitiveness to reduce profits from monopoly power, and bolster entrepreneurship to help create a more equitable distribution of corporate wealth.

The research is based on an analysis of Commerce Ministry data on the 2.1 million shareholders in Thai firms in 2017. Krislert said the study was funded by the University of California San Diego, where he is an associate professor at the School of Global Policy & Strategy.

The Thai government is trying to tackle inequality by boosting welfare handouts for the least well off.

But the perception of a growing divide exacerbated by an economic slowdown is one of the nation’s biggest political fault-lines.

To contact the reporter on this story: Siraphob Thanthong-Knight in Bangkok at rthanthongkn@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sunil Jagtiani at sjagtiani@bloomberg.net, Michael S. Arnold

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