Debt headache for Thai tycoon as protests bruise baht

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By Saeed Azhar and Khettiya Jittapong SINGAPORE/BANGKOK (Reuters) - A local currency hit by months of political unrest, and skittish consumers spending less are keeping the pressure on Thai billionaire Dhanin Chearavanont, who heads Asia's most indebted food retailer. Dhanin's CP ALL PCL, which operates 7-Eleven convenience stores, last year took a 1-year $5.8 billion loan to fund the $6.6 billion acquisition of cash-and-carry wholesaler Siam Makro - paying 53 times earnings in Asia's most expensive consumer sector deal by multiple. At the time, Dhanin promised investors to more than halve CP ALL's leverage - its net debt to EBITDA ratio - to just above 3 times by 2017 from an estimated 8 times, the highest among all food and staples companies in Asia, Thomson Reuters data show. He hoped to do that by adding 500-600 stores a year, but that expansion is threatened by Thailand's political fragility and an economic slowdown that have seen the value of the Thai baht slide by nearly 14 percent since last April.




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