Thailand Elite Card Issuer On Auction

[Buchholz]

operational expenses of 108 million baht a year.

Thailand Privilege Card Co plans to convert its last cash to approximately 130 million baht.

The state-owned Thailand Privilege Card posted accumulated losses of up to 1.14 billion baht as of 2006.

Barred from advertising their only one real benefit, the visa... current operational costs over 100 million a year... current company bailing... current debts well over a billion...

It's very difficult to imagine then why there's no takers for the half billion baht starting bid at auction as it sounds like such a sweet deal.

.

[Ricardo]

Happily, and after studying the full-details of their offer in 2004, I personally declined to join Thailand's Elite, even when Thaksin & Co. were promoting it as the ideal way for a farang-retiree like myself to own land here.

Even then, it cost too much, and offered way too little, so like most of the rest of the world's business-leaders and movers-&-shakers, I steered well-clear. Then-PM Thaksin's business-sense told him it was a sure-fire winner, and when sales failed to take-off, he logically put the price up ! This has cost the Thai taxpayer a fortune.

But I do believe that, for a more-reasonable price, a plastic-Card which gave me the rights to a lifetime-visa & to own a couple of rai of land here, could have sold very well. The concept was right, but not the pricing or the execution, IMO.

Unfortunately the sort of foreigners, who might gladly have paid say-B100k for these rights, simply weren't as stupid/rich/hi-so as the Scheme's creator believed them to be. We're not like him ... Thank the Gods !

[Thaddeus]

It's very difficult to imagine then why there's no takers for the half billion baht starting bid at auction as it sounds like such a sweet deal.

.

Have they not thought about putting it on eBay.

[baboon]

Dammit! I just have to get my hands on one of these little beauties!

[Bagwan]

Flogging a dead horse comes to mind.

[Buchholz]

Flogging a dead horse comes to mind.

Actually, it's a sick horse that, despite repeated floggings, has refused to die since first being struck in 2003 (it lost 134 Million Baht in it's first year).

At it's launch.

Later that same year, Juthamas predicted 20 Trillion Baht in-flow from card sales and spin-off revenue from attracting all these millionaires to spend, spend, spend on other things here while enjoying all the benefits of the Card. Card sales alone would have generated 1 Trillion Baht from the projection of one million card sales.

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Edited January 27, 2011 by Buchholz

[JWJ]

The Elite Card wasn't about golf, spas, or cheap hotels.

It was about making contacts with high level Thais.

Businessman can join the club and have important friends to call when typical Thai business practices are encountered (graft, threats, corruption).

Buying contacts with politicians and generals is what it is all about.

[Ricardo]

The Elite Card wasn't about golf, spas, or cheap hotels.

It was about making contacts with high level Thais.

Businessman can join the club and have important friends to call when typical Thai business practices are encountered (graft, threats, corruption).

Buying contacts with politicians and generals is what it is all about.

Good point, in fact I can recall rumours that buying an Elite-card would help one, with a planned investment-in-Thailand, but that non-purchasers need not bother trying !

But did DL really think that there were one million eager investors desperate to do business here ? ! Oh Dear ..

No, the key-benefits were surely the 5-year-visa & the option to buy land.

Edited January 28, 2011 by Ricardo

[cali]

The new news article from 27/01/2011 titled "Elite Card operator is dealt new blow" offers some startling information. It is sketchy and hard to follow so I am paraphrasing a bit. What might it mean when it says extended visa privileges are being removed from the membership package? Does it mean the lifetime visa promise is being abolished? It goes on to say they are going to speak to members about what to do and are scared of a lawsuit now. Have members received any information on what is going on yet? Hope it is not as bad as it sounds and you guys are not being kept in the dark.

Edited January 29, 2011 by cali

[111tingtong]

The new news article from 27/01/2011 titled "Elite Card operator is dealt new blow" offers some startling information. It is sketchy and hard to follow so I am paraphrasing a bit. What might it mean when it says extended visa privileges are being removed from the membership package? Does it mean the lifetime visa promise is being abolished? It goes on to say they are going to speak to members about what to do and are scared of a lawsuit now. Have members received any information on what is going on yet? Hope it is not as bad as it sounds and you guys are not being kept in the dark.

I think what is meant is they no longer can use the visa as a selling point for the card. As this is the major benefit of the scheme they would have no option but to close membership, there's really no other benefit to having it for the fee. Im sure current members will still hold onto their lifetime visa's as this was passed by the government a few years ago.

[Buchholz]

Nothing is assured of continued usage, including visa privileges, life-long or otherwise.

Any and all privileges are subject to revocation.

That's what they make small print for in contracts.

[111tingtong]

Nothing is assured of continued usage

Please tell me this includes your keyboard. We get the point, your against the Elite Card

[Buchholz]

Nothing is assured of continued usage

Please tell me this includes your keyboard. We get the point, your against the Elite Card

An odd assessment for such a new member.

Still, I'm more for reality and truth than I am against the Elite Card.

p.s. keyboards are inexpensive.

Edited February 27, 2011 by Buchholz

[rubl]

The new news article from 27/01/2011 titled "Elite Card operator is dealt new blow" offers some startling information. It is sketchy and hard to follow so I am paraphrasing a bit. What might it mean when it says extended visa privileges are being removed from the membership package? Does it mean the lifetime visa promise is being abolished? It goes on to say they are going to speak to members about what to do and are scared of a lawsuit now. Have members received any information on what is going on yet? Hope it is not as bad as it sounds and you guys are not being kept in the dark.

I think what is meant is they no longer can use the visa as a selling point for the card. As this is the major benefit of the scheme they would have no option but to close membership, there's really no other benefit to having it for the fee. Im sure current members will still hold onto their lifetime visa's as this was passed by the government a few years ago.

There have been lots of articles on the advantages of the elite card. Still I must admit I have no idea in how far current members really enjoy 'life-time visas'. The ownership of a rai or so of land was almost immediately questioned. Anyone who has details on what rights some of the very first buyers / owners of the elite card have? Do they have rights?

[Ricardo]

Perhaps DL, who had/has infinite confidence that his Elite-Card was a winner, might consider using some of his money to now buy the business, and demonstrate his superior business/economic-expertise by turning it round ? Or perhaps not ...

[Bagwan]

An audit to ascertain the true wealth of this fiasco will be carried out by KTB - whose majority shareholder is?

[swillowbee]

... haven't read into the Elite Card's detailed financials, but I think I get the drift through the media coverage ... it is a toxic asset, created by stupendously incompetent and bone-deep corrupt bureacrats ... the Thai Elite Card is inexhoribly bound for a spectacular failure, and will indelibly mark Thailand as "Amazing Thailand" in the eyes of the world's tourism industry.

... the real bid value is not based on how much a NEW OPERATOR will pay the GOVERNMENT for the platform, it is based on how much the GOVERNENT will pay the NEW OPERATOR to take it over.

... the salvage value on this one is negative ... better to tow this one to an out-of-the way location, let it settle on the rocks and quietly corrode.

... this is all about avoided costs ... the new operator is responsible to shut it down and all the costs associated with its unwinding - employee termination costs, early termination of office leases, unpaid bills, legal liability from broken contracts with a gazillion partners and members.

... so ... the smart bidder estimates the cost of shutting it all down is, say THB 3.0 billion ... and offers to take over the platform if the government pays it THB 3.5 billion ... they shut it down, and walk with a cool THB 500 million ... the government denies responsibilty and claims a perfectly profitable investment was run into the ground by the new operator, who goes to the beach.

... well ... that's MY investment thesis.

... but, who would be so incredibly stupid enough to get involved with anything created by the corrupt and incompetent Thai government? ... oh, yes ... of course ... a corrupt and incompetent Thai government "nominee" ... unless the Thai government "synthesizes" a nominee buyer to take them off the hook, my bet is the Thai government will choke this one down on its own.

Edited February 28, 2011 by swillowbee

[Buchholz]

... haven't read into the Elite Card's detailed financials, but I think I get the drift through the media coverage ... it is a toxic asset, created by stupendously incompetent and bone-deep corrupt bureacrats ... the Thai Elite Card is inexhoribly bound for a spectacular failure, and will indelibly mark Thailand as "Amazing Thailand" in the eyes of the world's tourism industry.

... the real bid value is not based on how much a NEW OPERATOR will pay the GOVERNMENT for the platform, it is based on how much the GOVERNENT will pay the NEW OPERATOR to take it over.

... the salvage value on this one is negative ... better to tow this one to an out-of-the way location, let it settle on the rocks and quietly corrode.

... this is all about avoided costs ... the new operator is responsible to shut it down and all the costs associated with its unwinding - employee termination costs, early termination of office leases, unpaid bills, legal liability from broken contracts with a gazillion partners and members.

... so ... the smart bidder estimates the cost of shutting it all down is, say THB 3.0 billion ... and offers to take over the platform if the government pays it THB 3.5 billion ... they shut it down, and walk with a cool THB 500 million ... the government denies responsibilty and claims a perfectly profitable investment was run into the ground by the new operator, who goes to the beach.

... well ... that's MY investment thesis.

... but, who would be so incredibly stupid enough

someone who could meet your criteria...

and who is a Billionaire in his own right:

Panthongtae Shinawatra

to get involved with anything created by the corrupt and incompetent Thai government?... oh, yes ... of course ... a corrupt and incompetent Thai government "nominee" ... unless the Thai government "synthesizes" a nominee buyer to take them off the hook, my bet is the Thai government will choke this one down on its own.

Perfect nominee for the job. It's a chance for Junior to show good ol' pop that he "has it" and is s-a-v-v-y enough to take over the Shin empire one day soon.

Turning this whole thing around and converting the money loser it into a trillion baht source of revenue for the Thai Treasury... just as Dad had envisioned it (or at least into someone's treasury).

Yeah, it could happen.

.

Edited February 28, 2011 by Buchholz

[tomyummer]

Typical of the Thai government not doing proper research before undertaking dumb-ass projects. How arrogant to think they could sell this crap project to foreigners with money. And permanent residents and expats, if I'm not mistaken, are not allowed to join?

Another notch for TAT and for EGO-Tourism.