Latest news with #Sarath
France 24
21 hours ago
- General
- France 24
Cheap alms bowls imports hit Sri Lanka makers, monks
The village of Panvila has long been associated with craftsmen who produce the humble "paathra", the special bowl that forms part of the eight essentials donated to monks and which is used to ask for food. Thenuwara Badalge Sarath, 65, says he is the only blacksmith left in a village that once supplied much of the country. "When I learnt the craft from my father, there were more than 10 families in the neighbourhood who made these bowls," Sarath told AFP, while hammering a piece of scrap metal into a holy utensil. "Today, I am the only one keeping up the tradition. My son died recently in a road accident, and there is no one to carry on this line of work after I am gone," said the fourth-generation craftsman. He spends about a week producing a batch of five to six bowls from discarded steel barrels. He sells each for 600 rupees ($2), but competition from cheap imports is tough. "There are aluminium bowls that come from abroad. They are cheaper and lighter -- we can't compete," Sarath said at his village smithy, near the southern tourist resort of Hikkaduwa. Karma drives demand The Buddhist-majority nation of some 22 million people has just over 42,000 monks, but the demand for bowls is disproportionately high because of the positive karma attached to offering them to temples. Kirinde Assagi, a leading Buddhist monk, said the alms bowl forms part of the eight items for a monk to lead an ascetic life and spread the teachings of Buddha, along with two robes, a razor, a straining cloth, a needle and thread, and a belt. "The bowl is his livelihood. When a monk goes out begging with his bowl, he gets sustenance", Assagi said. "Because gifting 'ata pirikara' to monks brings enormous good karma, devotees clamour to donate this," said the monk, in reference to the eight-item package. At his Gangaramaya temple in the capital Colombo there were nine such packages donated within an hour one weekend. 'Mountain' of discarded pots Assagi says most of the bowls however are of poor quality, made out of aluminium and unfit to serve food in. In a storeroom at the back of his temple, there is a huge pile of bowls that monks say are not suitable even for offering food to household pets. "I will show you a mountain of begging bowls that we have discarded. We make holes at the bottom and repurpose them for potted plants." Monks in Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos traditionally seek alms every morning, underscoring their simple life and demonstrating that their livelihood depends on others. But the influx of cheap bowls is impacting the dawn ritual. "We see the practice of monks begging slowly dying off as the quality of the bowls goes down," he said. The Gangaramaya temple in Colombo has campaigned to improve the quality of utensils offered to monks and revive the ritual of seeking alms. Assagi said the Thai royal family has in recent years gifted more than 27,000 high qualitiy stainless steel bowls to Sri Lankan monks, most of whom are followers of the Siam sect of Buddhism practised in that nation. Unlike the financially well-off Gangaramaya, smaller temples are known to sell their excess bowls back to the market in a move that undermines traditional craftsmen such as Sarath. "When the bowls go back to the shop from a temple, we find it difficult to sell our produce," Sarath said. He is trying to convince devotees that there is less merit in offering bowls that are being regifted.
Business Times
a day ago
- Business
- Business Times
Top Thai billionaires-backed groups win digital bank permits
[BANGKOK] Three groups led by Charoen Pokmhand Group, Gulf Development and SCB X have clinched Thailand's new virtual bank licences to boost competition in the nation's banking industry, according to the central bank. ACM Holding, which is part of CP Group, and Advanced Info Service, a Gulf Development's mobile phone affiliate, secured the permits, Bank of Thailand said on Thursday (Jun 19). SCB X, which formed a consortium that includes China's WeBank and South Korea's KakaoBank, also obtained the virtual bank licence. 'We have high hopes that the new licences will increase competition in the banking industry with new innovation and technology,' deputy governor Roong Mallikamas told a press briefing. The announcement came amid a fresh political turmoil in the country that puts the current government on the brink of collapse. The nation is opening its banking industry to more competition that will allow greater access to loans for under-served consumers, following similar moves across Asia. Still, the new virtual banking operators will confront a landscape where traditional lenders are saddled with rising bad loans and weakening credit demand on the back of a soft economy. The timing of these permits is 'tricky and throws up a number of challenges,' said Sarah Jane Mahmud, a senior bank analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. 'Singapore digital banks have yet to break even, three years after going live,' she said. 'With hefty investment in digital platforms and marketing, Thai digital banks could face a longer wait to generate profit.' Singapore handed out digital banking permits in 2020, followed by the Philippines and Malaysia. A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU Friday, 8.30 am Asean Business Business insights centering on South-east Asia's fast-growing economies. Sign Up Sign Up Low-income individuals and small business will also have a greater access to new credit by the new operators of virtual banks, said Roong. The Chearavanont family, which controls CP Group, is one of Asia's richest clans, according to the Bloomberg billionaires Index report. It has businesses spanning from foods and retail to telecommunication and properties. It forayed into digital payment and financial services through fintech unit Ascend Money, with more than 50 million customers in Thailand and six other South-east Asian countries. Gulf Development, controlled by billionaire Sarath Ratanavadi, was created earlier this year by combining his empire – ranging from power to seaports, tollways and telecommunication – under one roof with the goal to accelerate his expansion in digital infrastructure such as data centres. Sarath is Thailand's second-richest person with a net worth of USUS$11 billion. Joining Sarath's group in the bid are Krung Thai Bank and PTT Oil and Retail Business, according to the central bank's statement. BLOOMBERG
Forbes
20-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Billionaire Sarath Ratanavadi's Gulf Development Becomes Kasikornbank's Third-Largest Shareholder
A Gulf Development gas-fired power plant. Gulf Development—controlled by billionaire Sarath Ratanavadi-has increased its stake in Kasikornbank—making the energy and telecommunications giant the lender's third-largest shareholder. Bangkok-listed Gulf Development bought an additional 0.5% stake in Kasikornbank, raising its stake in Thailand's third-largest bank by assets to 5.2%, the company said in a regulatory filing. The investment is part of the continuing diversification strategy at Gulf Development, a power producer founded by Sarath in 2007. Since then the company has grown to become one of Thailand's largest conglomerates with interests in telecommunications, and digital infrastructure. It is the top shareholder of Advanced Info Service, the country's No. 2 mobile carrier by revenue. Beyond traditional financial services, Kasikornbank provides Gulf a potential virtual banking platform. Kasikornbank also owns a 38.3% stake in non-listed Muang Thai Life Assurance, which generated 5.6 billion baht ($169 million) net profit on 91.9 billion baht in revenues in 2024. 'We see this as a strategic long-term positioning move. Gulf is evolving into a national-scale infrastructure conglomerate—now covering power, telecom, satellite, banking, and potentially life insurance,' said Wetid Tangjindakun, analyst at KGI Securities (Thailand). 'Given the scarcity of quality growth names in Thai equities, Gulf stands out as a proxy for Thailand's structural digital and infrastructure evolution.' Gulf has been scaling up its investments in digital infrastructure. Last June, it partnered with Alphabet's Google to build artificial intelligence-powered cloud facilities in Thailand. Gulf Binance, a partnership between Gulf Energy and billionaire Chanpeng Zhao's Binance, started a crypto currency exchange in Thailand last year. With a real-time net worth of $12.9 billion, Sarath is among the wealthiest in Thailand. Bulf of his fortunes comes from his stake in Gulf, which has a market capitalization of about $22 billion.
Forbes
20-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Thai Energy Billionaire Becomes Kasikornbank's Third-Largest Shareholder
A Gulf Development gas-fired power plant. Gulf Development—controlled by billionaire Sarath Ratanavadi-has increased its stake in Kasikornbank—making the energy and telecommunications giant the lender's third-largest shareholder. Bangkok-listed Gulf Development bought an additional 0.5% stake in Kasikornbank, raising its stake in Thailand's third-largest bank by assets to 5.2%, the company said in a regulatory filing. The investment is part of the continuing diversification strategy at Gulf Development, a power producer founded by Sarath in 2007. Since then the company has grown to become one of Thailand's largest conglomerates with interests in telecommunications, and digital infrastructure. It is the second-biggest shareholder of Advanced Info Service, Thailand's No. 2 mobile carrier by revenue. Beyond traditional financial services, Kasikornbank provides Gulf a potential virtual banking platform. Kasikornbank also owns a 38.3% stake in non-listed Muang Thai Life Assurance, which generated 5.6 billion baht ($169 million) net profit on 91.9 billion baht in revenues in 2024. 'We see this as a strategic long-term positioning move. Gulf is evolving into a national-scale infrastructure conglomerate—now covering power, telecom, satellite, banking, and potentially life insurance,' said Wetid Tangjindakun, analyst at KGI Securities (Thailand). 'Given the scarcity of quality growth names in Thai equities, Gulf stands out as a proxy for Thailand's structural digital and infrastructure evolution.' Gulf has been scaling up its investments in digital infrastructure. Last June, it partnered with Alphabet's Google to build artificial intelligence-powered cloud facilities in Thailand. Gulf Binance, a partnership between Gulf Energy and billionaire Chanpeng Zhao's Binance, started a crypto currency exchange in Thailand last year. With a real-time net worth of $12.9 billion, Sarath is among the wealthiest in Thailand. Bulf of his fortunes comes from his stake in Gulf, which has a market capitalization of about $22 billion.
Business Times
19-05-2025
- Business
- Business Times
Richest Thai man raises top bank's stake to be No 3 shareholder
[BANGKOK] Gulf Development, controlled by Thailand's richest man Sarath Ratanavadi, has raised its stake in Kasikornbank to about US$610 million, making it the commercial lender's third-largest shareholder. Gulf increased its holding of Kasikornbank by 0.53 per cent from the previous disclosure to 5.23 per cent, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission statement dated May 16. The power producer and telecommunication company had ranked fourth with a 3.49 per cent stake as at Apr 18 when the lender published its top shareholder list. Sarath's Gulf last month completed the merger with Intouch Holdings, the top shareholder in Thailand's second-biggest telecom company Advanced Info Service. The company has a market capitalisation of about US$22 billion. Kasikornbank's share purchase by Gulf is part of its 'normal investment', aimed at generating higher capital gains and dividend, Gulf chief financial officer Yupapin Wangviwat told an investor meeting last week. Gulf has no plan for any close business operation with the bank in the near future, she said. Sarath built Gulf into Thailand's largest power producer and gained control of Intouch by gradually accumulating a 47 per cent stake. Sarath last week met with US President Donald Trump in Qatar, making him the only representative of a Thai business to do so, according to a Bangkok Post report. Sarath has a net worth of about US$12.9 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Kasikornbank is Thailand's second-biggest lender with total assets of 4.4 trillion baht (S$172 billion). Its shares are up about 5.5 per cent this year, bucking a 15 per cent slump in the broader Thai stock benchmark. Gulf and its partners are among the group which have bid for the Bank of Thailand's new virtual banking licenses. BLOOMBERG
