Thai company JKN Global Group, owner of the Miss Universe beauty pageant, said on Thursday it has applied to initiate debt restructuring proceedings due to liquidity problems. The company, led by popular businesswoman and trans activist Jakapong Anne Jakrajutatip, said in a statement it had asked Thailand’s Central Bankruptcy Court on Wednesday to initiate proceedings to reorganize its operations and debts. The company is asking to postpone debt payment deadlines, reduce interest rates and sell assets to clear some payments and continue operations.
Anne Jakrajutatip, the CEO of the Thai company, was once considered the third richest trans woman in the world in 2020, according to Forbes magazine. Jakrajutatip is known in Thailand for raising her voice and founded a foundation to promote the rights of transgender people Life Inspired For Transsexual Foundation. In fact, the competition organized by the Jakrajutatip company has allowed the participation of transsexual women since 2012: the first winner of a national competition was the Spanish Ángela Ponce in 2018.
But Jakrajutatip is not the most famous owner of the pageant. His company, JKN Global Group, owner of several digital channels and a production company, acquired Miss Universe from New York-based IMG Worldwide LLC in October 2022 for $20 million (18.6 million euros). It was sold to them by former US President Donald Trump, who co-owned the rights to the pageant from 1996 until it was taken over by IMG in 2015.
Donald Trump and one of the Miss Universe contestants of the 2010 beauty pageant.gtresonline
Trump’s sale of the competition to IMG came after problems between the former president and the NBC network when the real estate tycoon made controversial comments against Mexican immigrants in 2015, despite being a Republican candidate for the US presidency. In light of these comments, NBC canceled the broadcast of the competition to select the U.S. candidate for the next Miss Universe beauty pageant. The broadcasters Univisión and Televisa also broke off professional relationships with him. Miss Universe has been held annually since 1952 and is broadcast in more than 160 countries. The next edition will generally take place on November 18th in El Salvador.
JKN Global announced last May that in the first quarter of 2023 it had sales of 932 million bats (about 26.23 million dollars or 24.52 million euros) and a profit of 73.6 million bats (about 2 million dollars or 1 .94 million euros). However, liquidity problems in recent months have caused the company’s shares to fall on the stock market, including a fall of almost 30% this Thursday. So far this year, the company’s shares have lost more than 70% of their value.
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