BANGKOK -- A member of Thailand's wealthiest clan has acquired U.S. magazine Fortune for $150 million in cash, but he is buying one of the world's best known business publications on his own account and not for his family's Charoen Pokphand Group, a conglomerate with stakes in agribusiness and telecommunications.
The deal by businessman Chatchaval Jiaravanon, which was kept under wraps until it was announced Friday, marks a new departure in the growing number of foreign acquisitions by wealthy Thais. Chatchaval made the private purchase from American publisher Meredith through Fortune Media Group Holdings, a wholly owned company he set up for the purpose.
