Nawat Itsaragrisil in front of the Miss Universe logo. Image from his Facebook page.
Just as the Miss Universe pageant announced that Thailand will host the 74th edition of the. competition, a major shakeup developed with controversial pageant personality Nawat Itsaragrisil acquiring ownership of his country’s local Miss Universe franchise for five years beginning 2025.
This means that Itsaragrisil, who also owns the Miss Grand International organization, will choose the host delegate to the global pageant later this year.
Itsaragrisil hinted as much when he posted a picture of himself on social media with the Miss Universe logo as backdrop, captioning his post as: “Miss Universe x MGI Org.”
A document acquired by the Thai Enquirer showed that the deal amounted to THB180 million (P309.6 million), and covers the period between 2025 and 2029.
Article continues after this advertisement
The document dated Feb. 17 stated that the Miss Grand International board has approved an investment for organizing the Miss Universe Thailand pageant, the national competition that will choose the Southeast Asian country’s delegate to the Miss Universe pageant.
Article continues after this advertisement
Of the THB180 million investment, THB30 million will come from the Miss Grand International’s working capital, while the remaining THB150 million will come from the company’s loan from its owner, Itsaragrisil.
With the new acquisition, the Miss Universe Organization is dropping TPN Global Co. as the franchise holder from Thailand.
Under TPN, Thailand has produced 2023 Miss Universe first runner-up Anntonia Porslid and 2024 third runner-up Opal Suchata.
With the Miss Grand International’s acquisition of the Miss Universe Thailand pageant starting this year, Itsaragrisil may now also be involved in staging the 74th Miss Universe pageant as part of the organizing committee.
Reports are circulating that Itsaragrisil and Miss Grand International will release a statement regarding the matter on Tuesday, Feb. 18.
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,
‘https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
fbq(‘init’, ‘607491687857238’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);