Thailand is turning to its billionaire-led conglomerates to help contain rising living costs, underscoring both the urgency of inflation pressures and the outsized role of big business in the country’s economy. Major retailers — including those controlled by tycoon Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi , as well as the Chearavanont and Chirathivat families — have agreed to roll out house-brand food, toiletrie...
Thailand is turning to its billionaire-led conglomerates to help contain rising living costs, underscoring both the urgency of inflation pressures and the outsized role of big business in the country’s economy. Major retailers — including those controlled by tycoon Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi , as well as the Chearavanont and Chirathivat families — have agreed to roll out house-brand food, toiletries, and other essentials at discounts of 25% to 50%. The initiative is part of a government-backed campaign dubbed “Thais Helping Thais.” CP All Pcl and CP Axtra Pcl , controlled by billionaire Dhanin Chearavanont ; Central Retail Corp Pcl , run by the Chirathivat family; and Charoen’s Berli Jucker Pcl are among the companies participating in the campaign to keep prices in check. Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul , whose party won February’s election partly on promises to ease the cost of living, formally launched the program Wednesday. His government has spent recent weeks trying to shield households from rising prices while preserving already strained public finances. “This is an important step in cooperation between the public and private sectors,” Anutin said in Bangkok. “What will happen for sure is that consumers will be able to save money,” he said. While the government maintains price controls on dozens of essential goods, rising energy and production costs have already pushed up prices of staples such as pork and eggs. Households are also grappling with higher fuel costs, squeezing incomes at a time when economic growth is expected to slow as tourism and exports weaken alongside global demand. Anutin’s push to get corporations to keep prices in check highlights a defining feature of Thailand’s political economy : the close alignment between the state and a handful of powerful conglomerates that dominate key sectors. While such partnerships can deliver rapid relief in times of stress, they also reinforce an oligopolistic structure that limits competition and concent...
SDI Productions/E+ via Getty Images Nutex Health ( NUTX ) is at a spot where investors have to look hard at just how much the company's profits can grow and, at the same time, how exposed the business is if things go wrong. I'm still basically neutral on Nutex Health. "Hold" makes sense to me, not because the stock looks cheap on those current multiples (even though they do look pretty tempting at...
SDI Productions/E+ via Getty Images Nutex Health ( NUTX ) is at a spot where investors have to look hard at just how much the company's profits can grow and, at the same time, how exposed the business is if things go wrong. I'm still basically neutral on Nutex Health. "Hold" makes sense to me, not because the stock looks cheap on those current multiples (even though they do look pretty tempting at first glance), but because the whole situation depends so much on details: the weaknesses in the business model, the things that could go sideways, and the way the rules work right now. For 2025, revenue shot up 82% to $875.3 million, and gross profits hit $444.3 million; that's over a 50% margin. Earlier , I was cautious, for good reason, about how well Nutex could actually scale up and handle things before IDR really took off. But the latest results are hard to ignore: patient visits grew by 11.8% (now at 188,300), the hospital side saw better margins, and the company kept winning more than 85% of its cases in arbitration. Still, there's a catch. Most of that growth is coming from one place. About 63% of the hospital side's revenue, so around $527.8 million, is directly tied to appeals and disputes settled under IDR. That's actually down 7% from the last quarter, but it's still a huge chunk. Now, the company sends about half of all its claims to arbitration, down from 60%. That shows they're being more careful about which disputes they pursue, but it also hints there's only so far this approach can go. The whole setup is still pretty dependent on a single legal-financial strategy. Author, Alpha Vantage Business Model NUTX 10-K Nutex Health mostly stands out because of how it runs its micro-hospitals and gets paid out-of-network, going after high-acuity cases that move fast, cases where it can push back against insurers' usual limits by using the IDR process. The company gets some extra stability from its tech-driven population health business, but in 2025, that side only...
Morning, I’m Chloé Meley from Bloomberg UK’s breaking news team, bringing you up to speed on today’s top business stories. Trump’s war in Iran may hurt the UK more than others. But his tariffs could, counterintuitively, help cushion some of that impact. Facing high levies from the US, Chinese companies are turning to the UK instead and cutting prices on exports to Britain. The price for cars, Chin...
Morning, I’m Chloé Meley from Bloomberg UK’s breaking news team, bringing you up to speed on today’s top business stories. Trump’s war in Iran may hurt the UK more than others. But his tariffs could, counterintuitively, help cushion some of that impact. Facing high levies from the US, Chinese companies are turning to the UK instead and cutting prices on exports to Britain. The price for cars, China’s largest export to the UK, fell 4.6% in January and February compared to the same period last year, while prices for computers, phones and furniture also dropped while shipment volumes soared. If the flood of cheaper Chinese goods continues, that would be “good news for inflation,” according to Barret Kupelian, PwC UK’s chief economist. It could help offset part of the energy price shock from the war in Iran, and inform the Bank of England’s decisions as it keeps a close eye on inflation pressures. The one big concern, of course, is the impact that this influx of Chinese products could have on British industry — not the most thriving of sectors, and a politically sensitive area for Keir Starmer. What’s your take? Ping me on X , LinkedIn or drop me an email at cmeley@bloomberg.net. Oh, and do subscribe to Bloomberg.com for unlimited access to trusted business journalism on the UK, and beyond. What We’re Watching Speaking of, Starmer is facing growing pressure to help Brits with the rising cost of living, as the economic effects of the conflict in the Middle East — soaring diesel prices and increasing energy bills — start to hurt household budgets. No major package has been announced yet, though Starmer has suggested any help would be concentrated on the neediest people. Novo Nordisk ’s weight-loss drug Wegovy is set to be offered far more widely on the NHS, becoming an option for about 1.2 million more patients after the drug price regulator recommended it to prevent heart attacks and strokes. BP ’s new CEO Meg O’Neill starts today , becoming Big Oil’s first female boss a...
undefined China’s factory activity returned to expansion in March as post-holiday production resumed and domestic demand warmed, although surging raw material prices strained manufacturers. The manufacturing purchasing managers’ (PMI) index rose 1.4 points to 50.4 in March, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Tuesday. The non-manufacturing PMI, which measures activity in the services sect...
undefined China’s factory activity returned to expansion in March as post-holiday production resumed and domestic demand warmed, although surging raw material prices strained manufacturers. The manufacturing purchasing managers’ (PMI) index rose 1.4 points to 50.4 in March, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Tuesday. The non-manufacturing PMI, which measures activity in the services sector, increased 0.6 points to 50.1, bringing both gauges above the 50 mark that separates expansion from contraction. The composite PMI reached 50.5, climbing 1 point from February.