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Published on December 17, 2007

While most businessmen are shunning new investment until political stability is restored, William E Heinecke is going ahead with his plans confident they will prove as successful as all his other projects in the past three decades.

This year, he stunned all hotel and residential developers when Minor International, the company he founded and has been serving as chairman and CEO, unveiled plans for the Bt4-billion St Regis Hotel and Residence Bangkok on Rajdamri Road. It will comprise one of the capital's most exclusive hotels and Thailand's most expensive condominium when it opens in 2010.

US chain Starwood Hotels and Resorts will manage the hotel under its top brand, St Regis, while the condominium will boast residences with price tags from Bt30 million for a 250-square-metre unit to Bt120 million for each of the four 800-square-metre duplex penthouses.

"This is Minor's most expensive investment and it will be the most expensive condominium in the country," Heinecke said at the press conference launching the project.

Minor plans to develop another three projects in Bangkok, one on Koh Samui, one in Phuket and one in Krabi. Within five years, it expects to invest more than Bt10 billion in Thailand's hotel industry. It is also developing hotels and residences in Dubai and a resort in the Maldives.

Moreover, it is negotiating with a food and beverage company to introduce a new product into the Thai market, with initial investment of about Bt1.5 billion.

Heinecke has also moved into aviation through the launch of a charter-flight service for well-heeled tourists in the personal belief that destinations in Thailand and in the region will become more popular for individual and group travellers.

Minor Aviation flies to Singapore, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, India, the Maldives, Sri Lanka and throughout Thailand. It will soon offer flights to the Middle East, Hong Kong and Japan.

Under his leadership, Minor also plans an aqua-

rium in Phuket costing

US$60 million (Bt2 billion). Encompassing 10,000 to 12,000 square metres, the aquarium is set to be completed in 2010.

 

With so many projects on the go, it is no surprise that 58-year-old Heinecke hardly finds time for his favourite activities of scuba diving, car racing and piloting.

Driving him is the urge to become as successful as Lee Iacocca and Rudolph William Louis "Rudy" Giuliani. While Iacocca is an American industrialist most commonly known for his revival of the Chrysler brand in the 1980s, Giuliani is the lawyer, businessman and former mayor of New York City who is currently seeking the Republican nomination in the 2008 US presidential election.

Heinecke's role models are Americans, probably because he himself is an American who happened to fall in love with Thailand and spends more of his time here than in the US.

His father Roy was a war correspondent who was based in Bangkok. Heinecke junior actually went to high school here and started his career without any college degree. He launched an office-cleaning company at the age of 18 and became a millionaire before he was 21.

He moved on to form a radio-advertising agency, which was successful enough to attract a takeover from Ogilvy & Mather. In 1978, four years after he sold the enterprise, he established Minor International, which opened the first Pizza Hut in Asia in 1980 in Pattaya. As the company expanded quickly in the hotel and fast-food industries, Heinecke obtained Thai citizenship in 1991.

In nearly 30 years at the helm, Heinecke has led Minor into a series of exciting episodes. He was dubbed as David against Goliath when Minor launched a fight against US-based Pizza Hut franchiser Tricon Global Restaurants, which is now Yum International. In 1998, he sought assistance from Thai shareholders of Regent Hotel Bangkok to fight against a hostile takeover by giant US investment bank Goldman Sachs.

Today he has established Minor International as a global company.

The group runs 15 hotels with more than 2,300 rooms under the Marriott, Four Seasons, Anantara and other brands in Thailand, the Maldives and Vietnam.

It also operates 23 spas in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East, as well as more than 600 restaurants in Thailand under The Pizza Company, Swensen's, Sizzler, Dairy Queen, Burger King and LeJazz brands.

Heinecke has led his empire on a glorious path, despite the 1997 financial crisis, the effects of the September 11 terror attacks in the US, the Sars outbreak and the tsunami. No wonder, as his business empire straddles Southeast Asia, he is now considered the most famous expatriate in Thailand.

Note: Read more BusinessExtra

Tomorrow: price control

Suchat Sritama

The Nation