Former Thai AirAsia’s largest shareholder accidentally crashed and died
In the early morning of October 28, Beijing time, the private helicopter belonging to the owner of the Premier League Leicester City club Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha crashed outside the King Power Stadium and exploded during the crash. Vichai was confirmed dead.
Vichai is one of Thailand’s top five richest men. He is more widely known as the owner of King Power, the largest duty-free shop group, and the team owner who led the rise of Leicester City Club, but he was actually Thai AirAsia is the largest investor in Thailand's largest low-cost airline.
As early as 2016, Vichaihao acquired a 39% stake in Thai AirAsia (AAV) for more than US$550 million, and then acquired a 55% stake in Thai AirAsia. It was once the largest shareholder of Thai AirAsia. At that time, Vichai acquired Thai AirAsia for the purpose of strategic investment, believing that there was a huge synergy between the low-cost airline and the business of King Power Group.
But for a series of reasons, at the end of 2017, Thai AirAsia CEO Tassapon Bijleveld bought back most of Thai AirAsia’s shares held by King Power Group from Vichai. So far, King Power Group holds a 2.7% stake in Thailand’s Asian Shipping Company (AAV).