Billionaires Staying Out of Bars on Phuket

Phuketwan Billionaires and Bars File

PHUKET has attracted its share of billionaires recently, and reports come to Phuketwan occasionally about the activities of the (super) rich and famous.

But staying a billionaire these days is almost as difficult as staying out of bars.

And the point is, as even left-wing agrarian economists will admit, having a collection of billionaires as fans does the island no harm at all.
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Bill Barnett, the resorts and property specialist consultant, has offered a little speculation about the uberwealthy on Phuket in his new blog.

The Barnett list has been picked up by Property Report, and the introduction does have a somewhat 2007 approach that begins: ''Thailand's resort island of Phuket is fast becoming the place for the rich and famous in search of tropical island living coupled with great investment.''

Sure, sure . . .

The list of billionaires offered is topped by New Zealand's wealthiest brothers, Richard and Christopher Chandler with a fortune valued at more than US$ 2 billion and Canadian Robert Friedland,with Forbes reporting his net worth at US$1.4 billion.

Others on the almost-as-well-regarded Barnett-Property Report list include Hong Kong's Allan Zeman, considered to be the Father of Hong Kong entertainment zone Lang Kwai Fong: ''While his personal worth remains undisclosed he is highly ranked among Asia's most wealthy and influential businessmen'' and Formula One star Kimi Raikkonen, earning a reported US$ 44 million a year and ranked by Forbes as the fifth highest paid sports star and 26th highest paid celebrity.

The British Binatone founder, Gulu Lalvani, rounds out the list with his ''globetrotting celebrity and multi-million dollar personal fortune.''

We know of a couple of others who are frequent Phuket visitors and make the ''Australia's Wealthiest'' list: Bill Wavish and Solomon Lew, both products primarily of retail store fortunes.

Gulu Lalvani famously decided to build an artificial island for megayachts a few years back after a conversation with Bill Gates, who this year lost less money than Warren Buffett to retake his position at the top of wealthy lists worldwide.

We know less about the Russian billionaires, but reports say several big players have tumbled out of their Top 10 Rich List.

Some of them are bound to be Phuket fans.

The BBC reports that Indian businessman Anil Ambani has been revealed as the biggest loser on the 2009 Forbes World Billionaire list, losing $31.9 billion over the past 12 months.

Mr Ambani, who runs the telecoms and finance arms of the former Reliance Group, had been the biggest gainer in 2008.

India's billionaires saw massive falls, with Mr Ambani's brother Mukesh and steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal both seeing over half their net worth wiped out.

The 793 people listed lost 23 percent of total wealth on average over the past year.

The impact of the global economic downturn on people's fortunes was apparent, with 332 names from last year's list not making the cut, the BBC reported.

The huge losses almost make the billionaire's club sound like something you'd be glad to never have to join. Almost.

Thailand is not short of people who are extremely wealthy too, some with fortunes made in property.

Chaleo Yoovidhya, Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi and Dhanin Chearavanont made the latest world wealth rankings by Forbes.

Red Bull founder Chaleo Yoovidhya led the trio with an estimated net worth of $3.7 billion, good for 151st place in the latest ranking, up from 260th last year. His estimated net worth fell from $4 billion in 2008.

Liquor and property magnate Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi was ranked 318th with a net worth of $2.1 billion, down from 307th place and $3.5 billion last year.

The magazine said Asian billionaires lost $447 billion overall as a result of the global crisis, with the number of Asians on the global list falling to 130 from 211 last year.

Region-wide, 28 of Asia's billionaires on the global list are from China, 24 from India, 19 from Hong Kong and 17 from Japan. Another 10 are from Australia, six from Malaysia, five each from Indonesia and Taiwan, four from South Korea, three each from New Zealand and Thailand, and two each from Kazakhstan, the Philippines and Singapore.

The new Barnett blog is at thephuketinsider.com