Prachai Leophai-ratana

Who is Prachai Leophai-ratana?

Prachai Leophairatana is a former Senator and a Thai businessman who founded Thai Petrochemical Industry.

Prachai founded Thai Petrochemical Industry in 1978, based on companies his grandfather founded during World War II. Thai Petrochemical Industry group begun in rice milling, and had extended to gunnysacks, textiles, and insurance in the second generation. In 1979, the group consisted of nineteen firms still based mainly in agriculture-related sectors. The patriarch of this second generation, Pornchai Leophairatana, sent his sons to the USA to study accounting, economics, and chemical engineering. Returning to Thailand in the era when the economy was shifting decisively towards industry using newly found supplies of natural gas, Prachai Leophairatana and his five siblings launched the firm into cement and petrochemicals. By the mid-1990s, the number of firms had expanded to forty-four, total revenues had multiplied twenty-five times. TPl had risen rapidly to second rank in the cement market, behind the venerable Siam Cement. It had also become a major player in the booming petrochemicals industry. TPl had financed this rapid expansion by listing its major companies on the stock market, but had also taken large loans from domestic banks and international banks. By 1994, it had become Southeast Asia's first fully integrated petrochemical company. TPI invested in a wharf and handling facilities on Thailand's eastern seaboard, built a 100-megawatt power plant, and even owned a cement company and opened its own gas stations.