Vichai Raksriaksorn, chairman of the King Power Group of Companies, Thailand's largest duty-free retailer, is one of Thailand's few polo players.

"I think there are only about 30 players here, so it's quite difficult to get enough players for a game, because you need two teams of four each," he says.

"One reason is that it's an expensive sport, because you need to play on horseback. It's also tough and rough and quite dangerous. I once fell off and broke one of my legs. Prince Charles of England is also an enthusiastic polo player. He was seriously injured some time ago.

 "Polo is about speed and your senses in communicating with your horse. It's more widely played in Europe than elsewhere. I have a stable of 10 horses that I purchased from the Sultan of Brunei."

Vichai, 48, started horse-riding in his early 30s. Now the businessman is turning his favourite sport into a new business venture. He is preparing to create a polo club, complete with a standard playing field, on a 64-hectare property near Suvarnabhumi Airport in Samut Prakan's Bang Bo district.

Vichai is also nurturing one of his sons to become a world-class player. "Out of my own pocket, I paid for his travel to Argentina as part of a Thai team to compete in a recent international match."

For Vichai, who enjoys regular horseback riding on weekends, this polo-club project looks to be the icing on the cake of his multi-billion-baht duty-free empire, built up over the past two decades.

At Suvarnabhumi Airport, the King Power Group holds a 10-year lease on a 9,000-square-metre duty-free shop and another 20,000 square metres of other retail space. In terms of duty-free space, Suvarnabhumi is ranked among the world's top 10 airports.

Vichai says London's Heathrow has 49,000 square metres of duty-free space, making it the world's largest shopping paradise, followed by South Korea's Incheon Airport, which has 30,000 square metres.

After that comes Chek Lap Kok Airport in Hong Kong, with 22,000 square metres; Dubai Airport, just over 17,000 square metres; and Singapore's Changi Airport, with 17,000 square metres.

As well as the duty-free retail space at the new airport, Vichai also operates and is further developing an inner-city duty-free complex in Soi Rangnam, where travellers can shop in advance and collect the goods at the airport on departure.

"We're creating a unique one-stop shopping experience for both Thai and foreign travellers, complete with a hotel, a theatre and other facilities, at the five-hectare city complex with an investment of about Bt5 billion," he says. "Our major customers are Asian travellers from Japan, South Korea and China. Indians and Russians are also important customers."

"As for the airport facilities, our investment outlay is Bt15 billion, including about Bt4 billion in concession fees, paid in advance to Airports of Thailand. Therefore, our corporate liabilities are huge, running to the tune of about Bt20 billion.

"Still, Forbes magazine recently ranked me as Thailand's 24th-richest man, which is not quite accurate, given my multi-billion-baht liabilities."

"Our sales projection for 2006 is Bt13 billion, from both the airport and city stores, but we're still behind the target by about Bt700 million. because of the cost of switching from Don Muang to Suvarnabhumi in September.

"Usually, it takes about six months for customers to become familiar with a new airport and its facilities and for duty-free sales to return to normal."

Vichai, who began his first shop in Hong Kong 18 years ago, adds: "For 2007, we've set a sales target of Bt18 billion from a total of 30,000 square metres of retail space at Suvarnabhumi and the city shopping complex."

Nophakhun Limsamarnphun

 The Nation