Sign of the times: Asian stockbroker sells sandwiches to
survive (and shortly on a corner near you)
Copyright c 1997 Nando.net
Copyright c 1997 Agence France-Presse
BANGKOK (December 6, 1997 8:47 p.m. EST nando.net) - As he fumbles in his plastic cooler box, sandwich vendor Siriwat
seems light years from the high-flying life he led as one of Thailand's top stock market wizards.
The former head of a securities firm who once made more than $380,000 a month when Thailand boasted the world's fastest growing
economy, is lucky these days if he makes a few hundred.
"I've had my ups and downs on the stock market and suffered during the Gulf War and during public unrest in Thailand, but it's never
lasted so long before," Siriwat Voravejvetakuth said.
"At first I thought I would weather the storm as I had the others, but things have been sinking steadily for almost three years -- including
the stock market index which has dropped from 1750 to 380 points."
Heavily exposed to the now deathly property sector and the sliding share market, Siriwat -- who owns a fund management firm -- now
sells sandwiches for a living to pay his staff of 20 workers.
"I could have afforded 10 Mecedes Benzes and even a private aircraft, but now it's back to basics, back to the simple life, back to plain
old survival," says the jovial 42-year-old.
But the economy slowed and Sirwat looked for another business opportunity, one that proved disastrous: property.
"I built luxury condominums, but as they were completed early this year, suddenly the millionaires who were to buy them were not rich
anymore and couldn't afford them."
But Sirwat is not alone in his tumble from the dizzying heights of seemingly unlimited wealth, to an abyss of mounting debt and slowing
business prospects.
This weekend the resourceful entrepreneur, who with his remaining 20 employees launched himself into the street catering business in a
bid to pay his salaries and service his huge debt, set up shop in the "weekend market for the formerly rich."
The Bangkok bazaar attracts once flush middle-class Thais who are trying to discreetly sell the trappings of the glitzy lifesyles they can
no longer afford as the country sinks to its lowest ebb since World War II.
On sale are goods ranging from luxury cars, to watches, to the occasional light aircraft and even a hovercraft.
And more are joining them, especially as the government prepares to announce on Monday the fate of 58 suspended and technically
bankrupt finance firms.
Most of the companies, which approved huge loans mainly to the property sector, are expected to be closed leaving their already
cash-strapped middle-class employees in the job queues.
The once-rich shares guru sets up his cooler box -- which bears a cartoon scathing of the International Monetary Fund rescue of
Thailand -- on a cart and peddles the 75-cent sandwiches to all who can still afford them.
"Some of the people who come here know what it's like to see your life and fortunes transformed," he said.
"It's true that at this rate it will take me 100 years to pay off my debts, but at least I'm alive which means there is still hope for me."
The slump, sparked by the wild lending and spending of the 1980s and 90s boom years which saw a rich middle class spring up in only
a matter of years as Thailand roared as an Asian "Tiger" economy, has hit all Thais.
But the middle classes, who raced around Bangkok in sleek and fast German cars feel it perhaps harder than others.
"Things had come too easily," the Nation daily said at the weekend. "big salary raises, tremendous bonuses, generous creditors,
skyrocketing property prices.
"In the blink of an eye, multi-millionaires have become Cindrellas without a pumpkin."
By MARC LAVINE, Agence France-Presse |
