Thongchai Busrapan made one of the biggest decisions of his life in 2012, deciding to set up his own business at age 43.
He resigned without explanation from his posts as vice-chairman, president and board member of Noble Development Plc, the SET-listed company where he'd worked since 1991.
Mr Thongchai is a nephew of Kitti Thanakitamnuay, Noble's founder.
In another surprise, Mr Thongchai returned to Noble in late 2018, aiming to make it great again.
"I decided to resign from Noble in 2012, as I thought that at the age of 43 I was quite old," he says. "I could not have got what I wanted for my family if I continued working as a salary earner. I told my uncle, I wanted to do it on my own. I left the company and had some money to buy land to start my own property development business."
But Mr Thongchai's life changed once he, for the first time, had no "Noble Development Plc" on his business card.
"Working for Noble, I was somebody who was respected when talking with anyone and having a Noble business card in my hand, as the company was a large developer at the time," he says.
BACK TO SQUARE ONE
At his own firm, he had one employee -- his secretary. "I had to do everything by myself, surveying lands and holding a measuring tape to measure the size of a road. I really started from zero."
The first land he developed was an 11-rai plot on Sukhumvit Soi 22. As the property was too large to go it alone, he sought a partner. He thought of Suwat Liptapanlop, a heavyweight politician who'd bought a unit at Noble Ploenchit, Mr Thongchai's last condo project before leaving Noble.
"I never knew him before until the company launched Noble Ploenchit in 2012," he says. "I remembered he told me that his son and daughter were interested in the property business. Then I met him and he decided to join despite never knowing me before."
Mr Thongchai and the Liptapanlop family set up Proud Residence Co in 2013 with registered capital of 1 billion baht. He owned 30% and the family held 70%.
Proud Residence developed just one project, Park 24, a large luxury condominium with over 2,000 units on the Sukhumvit Soi 22 plot, which had an exit onto Sukhumvit Soi 24 after the company bought another plot for access.
The latter piece of land, 1.5 rai in area, set a record per-square-wah price of 2 million baht that year. Mr Thongchai felt the addition would enhance the project's potential.
While the project was still unfinished, SET-listed Origin Property Plc acquired Proud Residence and the condo project in mid-2017 in order to continue development and to add Park as a luxury brand to Origin's stable of mid-range brands.
"It was a good deal, though," Mr Thongchai says. "I was pleased to sell the joint venture firm, and Mr Suwat agreed. We wanted to exit and I got money to do other things, as we also had no plan to get the firm listed."
Mr Thongchai spent seven months helping Origin continue development of Park 24 and made a deal for land on Soi Thong Lor owned by businessman Tan Passakornnatee.
After completing all jobs for Origin, he quit work in January 2018. He bought an apartment in London, planning to settle down and bring over his two kids to study.
"I really wanted to quit because I was bored and I'd had enough," he says. "My life had nothing to prove. I had done many things, from Noble's president to developing a project on my own."
Flying back and forth from London to Bangkok for nearly half a year to spend time in both cities, Mr Thongchai was called back to Noble after receiving a phone call from his uncle, Mr Kitti.
"He told me he bought all Noble shares from another major shareholder after a six-year conflict ended," Mr Thongchai says. "He wanted to exit, asking whether I was interested in buying his shares."
NEW BEGINNING
As the share purchase was a huge investment, Mr Thongchai asked Frank Leung, managing director of Hong Kong-based property investment firm Fulcrum Global Capital, which had bought a block of units at Park 24, to buy the shares.
But Mr Leung said he wouldn't buy the shares if Mr Thongchai declined to join. So Mr Thongchai decided to co-invest with Mr Leung, who has served as Noble's vice-chairman and co-CEO since last September. On April 25 of this year, Mr Thongchai officially returned to Noble in the posts of co-CEO and chairman, replacing Mr Kitti, who is now the company's chairman emeritus.
"One of the goals is to have projects under Noble brands overseas in major cities of the US and Britain, no matter by acquisition or through greenfield development," Mr Thongchai says. "This will diversify the customer base from relying solely on Thais or the same old foreign buyers."
In his view, diversification does not mean the sort of non-residential developments that other developers are drawn to: "I rarely agree with the idea of diversification into other businesses, as investors in developers like us have a clear mandate to get a high return."
Overseas expansion by 2024 is one of three objectives he aims to achieve, following the first, which is to increase presales from 5 billion baht annually to 10 billion baht during the next three years, and the second, which is to expand the domestic market through new locations, segments and customer bases.
MAN ON THE RUN
While Mr Thongchai's renewed passion for property development is just beginning, he continues to embrace his favourite sport, running, and collect marathon medals. He will join the New York City Marathon in November and the Boston Marathon next year.
During the past two years, he completed four of the six major world marathons: Tokyo, Berlin, Chicago and last year London, where he covered the 42 kilometres in 6½ hours.
"I have run regularly for the past 20 years, but I often stopped after running five kilometres," he says. "I needed to challenge myself with a goal: joining world marathons and trying to get the Six Star Finisher medal."
At age 50, Mr Thongchai feels different now than he did working at Noble during his 30s and 40s.
"My ego is reduced compared with 20 years ago, when I was very confident in my ideas," he says. "I did the projects that I would want to sell to myself. But now at 50, I think I like things that a 50-year-old man likes. That's why I began to be quiet and listen to my staff."
His first day back on the job, he stepped into the meeting room and was heartened by the familiar faces of old colleagues.
"It was like a homecoming, very easy and comfortable to plug in," Mr Thongchai says. "If it were not Noble, the first company I worked with and joined as a founding employee in 1991, I definitely would not have come back."
