Prem Tinsulanonda, the former military general and prime minister of Thailand who sat on ThaiBev’s board of directors in the early 2000s, helped rescue Charoen’s Surathip Group, the distributor of Chang beer, in 1986. The company at the time owed THB 14 billion (approximately US$450 million) to banks and THB 6 billion (approximately $190 million) to the state before Tinsulanonda reportedly stepped in to help the company gain a monopoly over the liquor industry by restructuring contracts to reduce annual “burdens”.[12] Chang was also reportedly classified as an “economy brand”, which meant a lower excise tax