Thailand's richest man marries his granddaughter, looks at a Chinese financial man, and the secret "marriage bureau" of the wealthy family is exposed?
As Thailand's richest family, business marriages are necessary. As Thailand's top wealthy families, Xie and Chen also have a lot of intersection. The groom and the bride met at a young age, and later the two studied together at Columbia University in the United States, gradually developed love, and fell in love for 8 years before getting married. The Groom's Pangu Bank, the largest bank in Thailand by total assets, is also the largest private bank in Thailand...
Text | Financial gossip female author: coconut coconut
· · ·
What should a top rich marriage look like?
In the public's imagination, most wealthy weddings are inseparable from the adjectives high-profile, luxurious, romantic, and grand.
For example, the gambling king's son He Youjun married Xi Mengyao in a variety show, and his later marriage proposal is still discussed by everyone because of the earthy aesthetic and the famous scene of "looking for a mother":
For example, last year's marriage of Xtep Qianjin and seven wolf boys, this pair of newcomer childhood sweethearts, door-to-door pairs, melon-eating netizens sighed that it was simply a romance novel into reality:
Of course, wealthy marriages are not all so high-profile.
For example, the Xie family, the richest man in Thailand, the four generations of heirs of the Xie family have frequent good deeds, which also allows us to peek into the other side of the wealthy marriage.
1.
/ The four generations of heirs of the Xie family are in free love,
Commercial marriage with Pangea Bank /
In 1921, founder Xie Yichu and younger brother Xie Shaofei founded CP Group in Thailand. The founder Xie Yichu has four sons, namely Xie Zhengmin, Xie Damin, Xie Zhongmin and Xie Guomin, and is also what we often call the richest family in Thailand.
However, now the power of the CP Group is the fourth brother Xie Guomin's family. In 2017, Xie Guomin handed over the position of chairman of the group to his eldest son Xie Jiren, and his third son Xie Rongren became the CEO of the group, which means that the third generation of the Xie family officially took over.
▲ Xie Guomin (front row) and three sons: from left to right: Xie Rongren, Xie Ji and Xie Han
It was Xie Guomin's team that passed on three happy events in a row last November, and as the quasi-heir of the Zhengda Group, most of the four generations of the Xie family acted low-key and simple.
While studying in the United States, Xie Ji fell in love with his wife Marisa and married them, and had three sons and a daughter.
▲ The Xie Ji family, the wife of the Xie Ji people is Korean, mainly active in the art world and charity public welfare undertakings
In August last year, the eldest son Xie Yuchen proposed to his girlfriend Jin Sheng under the witness of his family, and the proposal scene looked very original:
At the end of November, the two held a wedding, and the wedding scene did not have the grand luxury of the wealthy wedding we imagined, highlighting a warm romance:
▲Image source: Weibo @fishtail world
But after all, it is the wedding of the richest heir in Thailand, and there should still be some rows, and the king and queen of Thailand will perform a pre-wedding blessing ceremony for them before the wedding of the two:
▲Image source: Weibo @fishtail world
The bride, Kim Seng, is Korean like her mother-in-law Marisa, and Kim Sheng's mother and Marisa have been friends for nearly 40 years. It can be said that Xie Yuchen and Jin Sheng are childhood sweethearts.
Also in November, Xie Yuchen's sister Xie Yuangeng accepted her boyfriend's marriage proposal at home. The fiancé's family lineage is not as prominent as the Xie family, and it is said that the family is engaged in politics, and the Xie Ji couple have also known each other for many years.
As a top giant, Xie Yuangeng once appeared at the Paris celebrity ball:
Seeing this, you may find that as a top wealthy family, the children of the Xie Ji people do not care very much about whether the other party is also from a famous aristocracy when choosing a partner, but more about having a lover and eventually becoming a dependent.
As Thailand's richest family, business marriages are also necessary.
On November 14, Thailand hosted a royal wedding between top business tycoons. The President of the Privy Council, Admiral Sulayuk, personally attended and presided over the wedding ceremony, and many Thai politicians and businessmen attended the ceremony to congratulate him.
The bride is Kamonan, the daughter of CP Group CEO Xie Rongren, who currently serves as the chairman of the Thanin Devi Chearavanont Foundation in the family, helping the medical and public health fields.
The groom is Chen Chanan, the second son of Chen Zhishen, general manager of Pangu Bank, a famous Thai banking family, graduated from Columbia University in the United States, with a master's degree in corporate analysis, and currently works for Bangkok Bank.
▲From left to right: Mr. and Mrs. Xie Jiren, the bride Kamonan, the groom Chen Chanan, and the Chen Zhishen couple
As Thailand's top wealthy families, Xie and Chen have a lot of intersection. Kamonan and Chen Chanan met at a young age, and later the two studied together at Columbia University in the United States, and gradually fell in love, and they were in love for 8 years before getting married.
▲The scene of the proposal of the two
Compared with the Xie family of CP Group, the Chen family of Pangu Bank is relatively low-key, ranking 29th on the Forbes Thailand Rich List with a net worth of 1.25 billion US dollars.
2.
/ After three generations,
The Chen family becomes Thailand's financial tycoon /
Although the Chen family is not as rich as the Xie family, its position in Thailand is extremely important.
As the largest bank in Thailand by total assets and the largest private bank in Thailand, Pangu Bank was once listed as one of the world's twelve largest commercial banks by the US "Finance" magazine, which can be called the "spine" of Thailand's financial industry.
But Pangu Bank started as a small bank on the banks of the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok, founded by founder Chen Bowchen and friends who raised 4 million baht (about 200,000 US dollars at the time), but at that time the bank was small, with few funds and staff, and was once known as the "company gallery".
▲ Chen Yichen, founder of Pangu Bank
In 1952, Chen became the general manager of Pangu Bank, overseeing the bank's decision-making and daily affairs. Most of Bangkok Bank's early customers were Chaoshan villagers who lived and worked in Thailand, and relying on its large Chinese base, Pangu Bank quickly became a Thai financial giant and expanded its business into Southeast Asia.
In addition, as an overseas Chinese, Chen also actively promoted the expansion of Pangu Bank's business to China, and in 1954, Pangu Bank set up a branch in Hong Kong. The following year, he sent his eldest son Chen Youqing to Hong Kong to manage the bank's business in Hong Kong.
▲Chen Youqing, former chairman of Asia Financial Group
Later, Chan Youqing established Asia Insurance in Hong Kong to expand the insurance business for the Chen family, and merged with Asia Insurance in Pangu Bank's commercial bank in Hong Kong to form Asia Financial Group and go public. Today, Asia Financial Group is chaired by its eldest son, Chen Zhisi.
▲ Chen Zhisi, Chairman of Asia Finance
In 1957, a coup d'état occurred in Thailand, Chen Yichen came to Hong Kong to avoid the limelight, in this oriental international financial center, Chen Yichen more keenly perceived the development and changes of international finance, and successively set up branches in Kuala Lumpur, London, New York, Tokyo and other places.
In 1963, Chen returned to Thailand and became the chairman and president of Pangu Bank, and in the following 20 years, Pangu Bank developed rapidly, from a small bank with an initial registered capital of only 4 million baht and 37 employees to Thailand's largest private bank with a registered capital of 5.8 billion baht and 20,000 employees.
In addition to his financial career, Chen also held many public positions and participated in charitable and public welfare activities, so he was valued by the Thai royal family, and the then King of Thailand awarded him the Order of the White Elephant of the First Class, the First Class Medal of the Red Cross, the Medal of Honor of Freedom, the Medal of Honor of Scouting, and the Honorary Doctor of Finance and Banking.
In 1982, Time magazine called Chen Benchen "Thailand's number one tycoon" and "the north star of Thailand's largest family business kingdom."
Chen Yichen has six sons and one daughter, in order to avoid family disputes over family property, Chen Yichen sent his eldest son Chen Youqing and his family to Hong Kong in his early years to manage and expand Pangu Bank's investment business in Hong Kong and overseas. The Pangu Bank business in Thailand is inherited by the second son Chen Youhan, and the rest of the family's hotel, medical and real estate business is handed over to other children.
In 1980, Chen Youhan, who had worked in Pangu Bank for 21 years, took over the post of president of Pangu Bank from his father, because he studied in China as a child and studied in London in his early years, Chen Youhan had a set of "combination of Chinese and Western" management model: not only morality and human feelings, but also familiar with modern enterprise management theory.
▲Chen Youhan, former chairman of Bangkok Bank in Thailand
Chen Youhan adheres to the principles of "meritocracy" and "meritocracy", attracting a large number of outstanding talents. He believes that employees are the bank's greatest asset, and that only by fully motivating employees can they provide better services to customers.
After serving as president, Chen Youhan not only actively explored overseas markets, but also expanded his business to China, Japan, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Malaysia and other countries; He was also adept at introducing new technologies, investing millions of dollars in IBM mainframe computers, becoming the first bank in Thailand to network deposit computers, and in 1987, all branches in Thailand were connected to computers.
During the 12 years that Chen Youhan served as president, Pangu Bank grew rapidly to become the backbone of Thailand's economy and one of the four major Chinese financial consortia in Thailand. Chen Youhan himself has been named "Thailand's Outstanding Banker" three times and "One of Asia's 25 Outstanding Bankers in 1990" by Fortune magazine.
In 1994, Chen Youhan stepped down as president of Pangu Bank, handing the group over to his eldest son, Chen Zhishen.
Three years after taking office, a financial turmoil hit Asia's financial industry hard, and Pangu Bank was no exception, with net profits falling by 80% in 1997 compared with 1996, and the bad debt rate reaching more than 40% at its peak. In response to the crisis, Chen Zhishen decisively sold the equity of his company, actively recruited foreign investors, and survived the capital advance by shareholders, so that Pangu Bank could quickly recover after the financial storm.
After three generations of hard work, Pangea Bank today plays a pivotal role in Thailand's economy.
3.
/ The "curse" of not being rich for three generations,
Why was it broken by them? /
Rich for only three generations, it seems to be a "curse" that haunts many family businesses, but this "curse" seems to be unfulfilled in the Chen family.
Chen Yichen was born in Thailand and was sent back to his ancestral hometown of Shantou by his father to study at a young age, perhaps because of this experience, Chen Yichen paid special attention to the influence of Chinese culture on the family, and there is a plaque of "accumulated streamers" in the ancestral home of the Chen family in Shantou, which has always influenced the Chen family.
▲Chen's ancestral home
So far, the Chen family has as many as 100 members, and now the fourth generation has also been in contact with family affairs, which can be passed down for nearly a hundred years and rich for more than three generations, which is inseparable from the word "he", and the good relationship between family members is also an important factor in maintaining the family.
The Thai Chan family and the Hong Kong Chan family have long been separated, and maintaining the connection between each other is mutual participation, which began with Chen Yichen, making both family and partners. Chen Zhisi once said in an interview with the media: "We are the minority shareholder of the Thai company, and the Thai uncle is also the minority shareholder of the Hong Kong company. ”
When Chen Youqing expanded his business in Hong Kong, his younger brother Chen Youhan helped and supported him on many occasions. In 1997, Pangu Bank was hit hard by the Asian financial crisis, and the father and son of Chan Youqing and Chan Chi Si in Hong Kong also helped.
With all three generations of the Chen family holding important positions in the family business, the two cousins Chen Zhisi and Chen Zhishen are more closely linked. Under the promotion of the two, Thailand's Chen and Hong Kong's Chen jointly developed real estate business in Shanghai's Jiading area, and also planned to open international schools in Guangzhou, Shanghai and other places.
The Chen family can break the curse of "rich for three generations", and "accumulation of streamers" is the root of family maintenance.
In Thailand, such wealthy businessmen are not limited to the Chen family.
In addition to the Xie family and Chen Zhishen family of the CP Group we mentioned, there are also overseas Chinese merchant families on the Forbes rich list in Thailand who have also been rich for three generations.
For example, taking a net worth of $12.4 billion as an example, the fourth richest person in Thailand, the Zheng family, known as Thailand's "retail king".
In 1924, Zheng Xingping left Hainan to come to Bangkok to make a living, opened a small grocery store with the financial support of his father-in-law, and by chance introduced imported goods from Europe and the United States, Zheng Xingping soon earned his first pot of gold.
After years of hard work, in 1956, he and his eldest son Zheng Youhua co-founded "Central Foreign Company", which was the first department store in Thailand.
Later, Zheng Xingping and his eldest son Zheng Youhua died one after another, and the second son Zheng Youying was called the "pillar" of the family. Under the leadership of Zheng Youying, CCB has realized group operation, and its business scope has expanded from the initial department store retail to hotels, tourism, construction, finance, agriculture, real estate and other fields, and is known as the "Central Department" by Thai locals.
Today, China Central Group is one of the largest Chinese business groups in Southeast Asia, with as many as 500 enterprises directly and indirectly controlled by the Zheng family, and has been listed as one of the "Eighteen Families of Thai Business" by Thailand's authoritative media "Finance & Bank" magazine.
Now the person in charge of this huge family is Zheng Chang, the son of Zheng Youhua.
Zheng Chang joined the family group after graduating from the United States with a master's degree in 1988. In 1993, he left the Central Bank to start a business, targeting mid-to-high-end consumers and establishing Thailand's first super shopping center, Big C Super Center, which opened 20 stores in less than 3 years. In 2002, he returned to the Central Foreign Bank Group as president.
In these wealthy overseas Chinese merchant families, we can see that the secret that they can inherit for a hundred years is nothing more than a "he" character, and "family and prosperity" are also fulfilled in them.
But for these wealthy businessmen, family harmony is the foundation, but how to continue to inherit this century-old inheritance is the most important.
For example, the Xie family, including Xie Yuchen, the eldest son of the Xie Ji people, the four generations of heirs of the Xie family have entered the family business, but it is not yet seen that which heir can take the lead alone. The sisters and brothers Xie Qirun and Xie Chengrun, who are well known as the leaders of the Xie family, are all in China and have successively joined Chinese nationals.
The Chen family has the same troubles.
At present, the number of Chen family members is as many as 100, in addition to Chen Zhisi's family settled in Hong Kong, many members have settled overseas because they have studied overseas since childhood, and the family is not closely connected, Chen Zhisi once revealed in an interview that the fourth generation can continue to inherit the unknown:
"'Rich but not three generations' is actually normal, the family has reached my third generation, and the experience is not bad, but whether the fourth generation can continue is still unknown."