Bangkok’s Tang Hua Seng shopping mall closes its doors to customers
The Tang Hua Seng shopping mall in Bangkok's Bang Phlat district will cease operations from Tuesday, in what the company believes is a temporary measure.
The company said on Friday that the Metropolitan Electricity Authority would cut electricity supply to the 12-storey shopping mall in the Thonburi neighbourhood from 8am on September 10.
“Hence, the company has to close the Tang Hua Seng Thonburi branch,” the announcement said, adding that the company was currently in negotiations with new investors.
Once the negotiations are completed, the shopping mall will be reopened soon, the announcement added.
The first branch of Tang Hua Seng was set up in the Bang Lamphu neighbourhood of Bangkok’s Phra Nakhon district in 1962. The Thonburi branch was opened in 1991.
However the company has been weighed down by losses in successive years – 122.47 million baht loss in 2017; 28.88 million baht in 2018; 93.52 million baht in 2019; 49.30 million baht in 2020; and 43.78 million baht in 2021.
The losses were a result of a decline in customers amid intense competition among retail businesses in the Thonburi neighbourhood, such as Central, Makro, Lotus’s and Major Cineplex.
The Legal Execution Department launched an auction for the Tang Hua Seng Thonburi branch in April this year. The shopping mall was auctioned at around 900 million baht, lower than the estimated price of 1 billion baht.
The Bang Lamphu branch had been auctioned off for 300 million baht many years ago.
