Born to succeed, Italian-Thai president built construction giant

By THE NATION

 

File photo: Premchai Karnasuta

 

HIGH-FLYING Premchai Karnasuta, president of Italian-Thai Development plc (ITD), is one of Thailand’s most powerful businessmen after three decades of heading the construction giant, operating both in the Kingdom and across the Asean region.

 

ITD, one of the country’s biggest construction firms, is the builder of many well-known infrastructure projects, including Suvarnabhumi Airport, the BTS Skytrain system, and multiple expressway and highway projects across the country.

 

Born in 1954 into a family steeped in business, Premchai, 63, is the youngest son of Chaiyuth Karnasutra, the co-founder of ITD. He graduated in mine engineering from Colorado School of Mines in 1977 before gaining a masters of business administration from the University of Southern California in 1979. His background and business vision turned ITD into a construction industry behemoth, responsible for several infrastructure projects in Thailand and neighbouring countries. 

 

While ITD obtained favourable conditions from several government in the region, it is not obvious that Premchai has links to any particular political group in Thailand. 

 

The company is currently 14.88-per-cent owned by Premchai, with other members of his extended family also being major shareholders.

 

ITD has also invested significantly in Myanmar’s Dawei deep-sea port and industrial estate programme in partnership with Thai and other foreign firms. Since the late 1980s, Premchai has run ITD with an iron grip, resulting in a relatively impressive record of big construction contracts, worth tens of billions of baht per year.

 

While the firm’s revenues are as much as Bt40 billion to Bt50 billion per year, ITD reported a net profit of only Bt246 million in the third quarter of 2017.

 

In 2017 alone, ITD won several mega-infrastructure projects worth a combined Bt130 billion, including the Bt35-billion Mae Moh power plant project.

 

The firm is also one of the biggest winners of rail-track construction contracts worth several tens of billions baht, including the first section of the Thai-Chinese high-speed train project and the Purple Line, Orange Line and Red Line mass transit projects, as well as the phase-three Laem Chabang port project.

 

However, the Dawei deep-sea port and industrial estate project in Myanmar is probably the largest for ITD in terms of construction scale and capital investment.

 

Besides the deep-sea port, which is close to Thailand’s Kanchanaburi province, ITD has also |joined hands with the Rojana industrial estate to develop a massive site of 13,000 rai (2,080) for industrial use.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/politics/30338130

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-02-07

Is that not the company that is being sued as health and safety does not featured in there operations as some found out a few months back

10 minutes ago, wakeupplease said:

Is that not the company that is being sued as health and safety does not featured in there operations as some found out a few months back

It's the guy who was caught poaching wildlife including a black panther in a national park only last night, 18 hours later and this drivel is printed.

all that money and no morality... 

6 minutes ago, bluesofa said:

Tomorrow's news:

ITD announces it has bought The Nation Newspaper.

They will surely buy the judge.

he's rich and probably well connected, he can do anything he wants in thailand.  

props to the rangers, sadly those rangers that arrested him will probably have forth coming problems.

 

3 hours ago, webfact said:

While ITD obtained favourable conditions from several government in the region

3 hours ago, webfact said:

Born to succeed

 

I can see how those two go hand-in-hand.

 

To summarize, he ain't getting into any hot water over shooting wildlife.

Edited February 7, 20188 yr by coulson
.

... and if they tried to tender in Europe, they wouldn't pass the first hurdle. Their standards are extremely poor.

44 minutes ago, the guest said:

... and if they tried to tender in Europe, they wouldn't pass the first hurdle. Their standards are extremely poor.

Easily to see with every road they ( try to ) build. Potholes after a few weeks already

Edited February 7, 20188 yr by Deli

The article doesn't list any personal merits other than being the child of a founder of ITD. Maybe dig some more and tell us if he has any redeeming achievements. If not, he would be just another Red Bull example, albeit a bit older and fatter.

My budgie was "Born to Succeed"

 

 

Den

He has the wealth to do anything he wants anywhere in the world. And he wants to kill Thailand’s endangered species and put their skins on a wall.  Will never understand the human mind of some people. 

Scumbag.

How about an article of the chief of Thungyai Wildlife Sanctuary who have the courage to made the arrest. Khun Wichien deserves an article more than this scumbag. 

Ofcores win meny contract 

Just bribe the officials 

Rich people have no morals 

Especially not this guy 

The fact that PM Prayut has said that "guilty poaching offenders will be punished"  is a cast iron guarantee this bloated dribbler will go free. This man has high class and some pull. You can tell by looking at him.

 

Edited February 7, 20188 yr by Cadbury

A absolute rat that should do 10 years jail 

On 07/02/2018 at 5:15 AM, daoyai said:

all that money and no morality... 

Lowest of the low. I would love to meet him

On 07/02/2018 at 8:09 PM, Thingamabob said:

Scumbag.

funny..

On 2/7/2018 at 4:28 AM, wakeupplease said:

Is that not the company that is being sued as health and safety does not featured in there operations as some found out a few months back

Five dead on one of their rail extension schemes in Bangkok. Work was temporarily suspended last year.

Off topic posts and replies have been removed. 

I think the technical term for this type of report is "marketing through the media".

 

Not the best effort though - has he not re-united a hapless tourists with a wad of cash after it was a left on the back seat of a taxi, or rescued a fallen baby bird after it fell from the nest?

On 2/7/2018 at 4:18 AM, webfact said:

ITD reported a net profit of only Bt246 million in the third quarter of 2017.

 

hard to believe, where is he stashing his money? He is like top 10 richest in Thailand, flies in a private jet.

Must be some very good accounting.