While most Thai outward FDI is in the form of greenfield
investment, Thai enterprises are also entering foreign markets
through M&As (table 5).8 Market entry through M&A remains
limited compared with firms from other mature developing
economies, but it shows the increasing financial capability of
Thai firms to acquire foreign assets abroad. M&A purchases by
Thai enterprises dropped considerably in the crisis impact stage,
particularly in the period 1997-1998. Most M&A purchases
before, during and after the financial crisis were in Asia, namely
ASEAN, China and Hong Kong (China) and in the services sector
(finance, investment, transport and communication) (table 6)
3. Driver and motivations
The motives driving outward FDI by Thai enterprises
are a combination of inter-related reasons (table 7). They vary
between firms, depending on the industry they operate in (e.g.
textiles vs. restaurant business; manufacturing vs. resource
base), the years of experience in internationalization
(experienced internationalized firms have a higher tendency to
locate further and to diversify their outward FDI activities than
newer ones), the extent of overseas business networks (business
contacts and networks facilitate outward expansion) and the
purpose of outward FDI.