Opportunity after the 1997 Financial Crisis
For a corporate lawyer with some extra cash, a shrewd business sense and intimate knowledge of finance and securities, the 1997 financial crisis was fortuitous. Health care seemed like a smart investment. His father had been a traditional-medicine practitioner; despite debt hospitals couldn’t handle because of currency devaluation, they were still sound businesses, especially those that relied on government spending for most of their revenue.
An opportunity came when another property group was looking to raise cash by unloading its stake in listed Sikarin Hospital, a community hospital with a middle-income clients, already in financial trouble. Wichai bought that 30% stake for a song. Once Wichai had enough shares to call the shots, he changed management, restructured debt and injected cash. Within 12 months the hospital was back in good business. He combined two other hospitals, Paolo Memorial and Siam Hospital, into the same group, Paolo Medic. By 2000 he had sold the Sikarin stake for five times what he’d paid and used the cash to buy a stake in listed Prasit Patana, whose Phyathai Group had three hospitals.That plus Paolo Medic gave him control of eight hospitals in Bangkok in 2008.