Thailand's Chearavanont Brothers Lead Their CP Group Into A Digital Future
This story is part of Forbes' coverage of Thailand's Richest 2025. See the full list here .
The Chearavanont brothers' agribusiness-to-telecoms conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group (CP Group) has lately been on a digital and regional expansion drive. In June, its fintech arm Ascend Money secured approval to establish a virtual bank, which paves the way for the firm to leverage its digital platform TrueMoney, with its countrywide base of 34 million users.
A month earlier, True IDC, the data center and cloud services arm of the group's telecoms giant True, teamed up with a BlackRock unit to invest $1 billion over the next three to five years to build data centers in Thailand, which is aspiring to become an ASEAN digital hub. After its 2023 merger with rival Total Access Communications, True is now the country's largest mobile operator with nearly 49 million subscribers.
With an eye on regional expansion, CP Group will be setting up a $1 billion private equity fund with Philippine sovereign wealth fund Maharlika Investment Corp. to invest in agriculture, digital innovation and renewable energy in the Philippines. Over the past 12 months, the net worth of the Chearavanont brothers has gone up by $6.7 billion to $35.7 billion.
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