asinah

Thai-Japan Gas Co., Ltd.

1/1 Mu 5 Rojana Industrial Park, Karn-Harm, Uthai, Ayuthaya 13210; tel (035) 330040-3; fax (035) 330039

Air Products Industry Co., Ltd.

343 Mu 2, Bang Pa-In Industrial Estate, Klong Jig, Bang Pa-In District, Ayutthaya 13160; tel 0 3525 8353 9; fax 0 3522 1412

Air Products Industry Co., Ltd.

343 mu 2, Bang Pa-In Industrial Estate, Klong Jig, Bang Pa-In District, Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya 13160

Thai Industrial Gases PCL (Talan plant)

50 Mu 11, Talan-Tarua Road, Bangkhamode, Ban-Mor District, Saraburi 18130; tel 0 3534 2937; fax 0 3534 2933

Unique Gas & Petrochemicals Public Co., Ltd.

30/1 Moo 11, T. Bangpakong, A. Bangpakong, Chachoengsao tel (02) 2592433-43; fax (02) 2592290-1

Best is talk to JETRO in Bangkok or to Sumitomo Heavy Industry (because the Jetro guy is also closely linked to Sumitomo and as well Mitsui)

Ayyeennaa,

I got two friends from the Philippines that work in Thailand as English teacher. PM me your email address and I will forward it to them. (School starts again in May so you should hurry if you want to lend a position as an English teacher in Bangkok)

BTW: Patpong on Songkran? I prefer Khaosan (if you happend to come to Khaosan the party goes on for three days).

Note: To get your paper legal in Thailand as a Filipino is much easier as for a Farang. (I've seen several European teachers that were refused a 90 day stamp (None Immigrant at the Thai consulates, but the teachers from the Philippines and Malaysia just popped in and picked up their passport w/o much questions. (ASEAN makes it possible)

good luck

A friend of my that is Thai works for a 5star hotel and earns around 50k per month. He is in charge of HR and training.

Alexa toolbars is actually spyware. Used it myself for a longtime until in webmasterworld.com it was suggested it is the worst toolbar and doesn't give a ###### about privacy of surfers. Every clicks, visits to sites get tracked and they sell the data.

Use the google toolbar and the problem is gone.

PS: I use Mozilla Firebird on my Linux PC. Works great

middle east have mentioned they feel that southern Spain is really theirs and should be reconquered.

Middle East has nothing with North Africa or Southern Spain to do. Could you point me to a website where those statements were posted?

I don't support Iraq and I think it is good that Saddam is gone but at what price?

But how Bush could make a deal with Libya?

Find them and kill them. Not a pretty picture and not the solution that "diversity" and "multicultural" segments of society like, but that is the way of it. If I appreciate nothing else, Bush is at least doing that.

Yes, but it too can backfire because it is a hit for a run and will never end.

That Saddam is gone is great and now it is time for Bush to go.

I heard the same that the creditcard must be the name of the passenger that is on the flight booked.

Hi ORF,

What is your MOFTEC export clearance certificate ?

A friend of my in the UAE is looking to import cheap motorcycles to ship them to Iran and Egypt.

Payment strictly by L/C at sight (LP400)

Contact me if interested

No problem about None Immigrant B Visa.

Meeting up? I have no operation in Thailand and we source room allotments directly. Are you a mamber of the Malaysia Tour Operator Association and if so, what is the number?

Send me a private message and I will give you my mobile number but this week everyone is on ITB in Berlin, so you picked a bad time for your visit to chase some dragons.

Wolfgang

The firm is looking to buy industrial, commercial and hotel properties but not residential properties, a sector that Barge said was becoming "overheated".

I guess some hotel owners will be pleased to hear that

3) If you have an account outside the country (offshore) for payments by clients, will Thai officials find out. Is it common practice for e business companies to do this

I am doing it offshore but you have to be sure not to collect a single cent in this country. If a hotel pays you a commission for a cleared transaction they will 100% have a widtholding tax which means your records will show up in the A/C of the hotels which means your name will show up.

BTW: The best rates to get is going to a global inbound operator in Thailand and forget dealing with all those hotels. If you setup a new travel portal it will take time to generate the revenues (between 6 - 12 months time) and they want to see numbers first before they come out with some excellent rates.

Good luck !

I think SP is the place to go. I would suggest too dress well, have a friend with you (someone on a work permit) and be very polite to the officer that handles the case.

I know of a Belgian guy that went to SP with his newly issued passport, didn't even had a letter from the embassy but gave them 20,000 Baht, showed him the flight tickets for the same day and he had no problems at all on leaving Bangkok.

They did so some background check on him but he was permitted to stay in the reporting room until evening and he never actually saw the famous SP cells from the inside.

So they have to deport him first to the airport and usually they are too lazy to do this.

I heard but could be wrong that they charge 500 Baht @ taxi fare for a trip to the airport.

I know Bill as well. Had heard he was a real bear but found him to be delightful at that time. Was in his office for most of one morning.

I think Bill is one of the tuffest guys I ever met in business. Our deal went sour with Minor Corp. because of Skip, his younger brother that approved and run the finances at the time. After 5 meetings and a waste of time I finally decided to stop pushing for the deal and a year later they contacted me again and said they wanted to go ahead because by that time I had already 200 hotel properties as my clients and the only one missing was Royal Garden Resorts.

The reason why they didn't went ahead with a deal was because we were just established in Thailand and they wanted to make sure that we are still in business a year later.

I'd still feel concerned if the revenue stream was derived from the domestic market, especially relying on business to business or business to government transactions.

Yes, I too.

In 1997 I sold my Thai company to a UK Telecom operator for a lot of money.

At the time of the MoU the British MD was at war with the Thai shareholders and verbally shouted words at the bankers family that I only said "I have to get out of that deal" because I didn't wanted to be associated to the MD.

The MD delayed 4 months all payments and contract signing because I called the Thai Chairman of the company and told him, you guys come up with the money or I inform the clients of what is going on in this company and take my business back.

I left the company but made sure that I leave on good terms with the Thai partners.

A few days later I received a lawyer letter and a request to repay the downpayment of 50,000 USD from E&Y (I hate thoseTop5). This letter was issued on instruction by the English MD and I told them, guys you can have my business for the 50k and I walk away and informed my clients that I am no longer more handling the support (my clients had 24 hours access to me).

My clients (around 70 of them paying an average of Baht 9000B per month) told me that they will expire the contracts and sign a new deal at a later time.

Two weeks later the Thai partner (banker) called me and asked me to run his operation in Hong Kong and I said let's first settle the old issue before I start on a new venture.

Then he told me in fact I want you take your assets back and the 50k USD is a gift of friendship under the condition if you ever file charges against the British company keep the Thai partners out of it but do go after the British Telco company and make them bleed.

It was those Thai bankers that told me get the hack out of Thailand and move to Hong Kong or Southern China were opportunities are on every corner and my technical skills are an asset and you will be more appreciated as by the Thai's.

(BTW: Those bankers are Thai's but they were right on that issue as it took me two years to recover from 97)

What happend to the English MD? He tried his best in Thailand but once you are the enemy of the bankers in Thailand it even effected his new business startup that folded a year later. Oh, yes he also was fired by the UK Telco because the Thai partners told the UK Telco Co fire him completly or we cancel the joint venture and write off the investment.

I had all my clients on my side and they resigned one by one from the MNC because of my close relationship with those clients and when I promised them revenues from the Internet and they got it.

Today I no longer deal more with those hotels and resorts but always keep a good relationship with the owners of the hotels and most of them still ask me hey when can we join back with you but I just smile and tell them sorry guys but I am in Thailand for holidays and not chasing the dragons for opportunties.

In business people make choices. Either to look at the short term or the long term. In our business, if you ever lost trust with the buyer or seller, can’t imagine even getting one business transfer done. We’ll always are going to do it the honest way and I’m happy with the results.

Yes, I guess in your business it is important to keep the credibility. If one deal turns sour it can have a great impact on your business in Thailand.

BTW: I didn't pointed or linked honesty against your company. I used the term as a general term about how business is done in Thailand.

Affirming our commitment to business owners, our services are provided on a FREE-OF-CHARGE, NO-OBLIGATION basis to them. Only if their company is sold, does Sunbelt earn a fee, which is earned on a success basis. This is to say, if they are successful in having their business acquired, their company pays our fees at closing. If not, they know in advance what the costs will be… ZERO!

Greg, your answer is straight forward and I am happy to say that you are different from those other brokers.

Not in all cases. Yes maybe 95% but on 5% you’re still talking a lot of good businesses.

I guess some how we mean the same things. Of course some owners of a business are retireing or due to health reasons etc. I am running a small family business with my 2 daughters and we would never sell our business again, only of course if we need the funds to jump on a new project.

You are correct. On accounting, it didn’t take long to figure out every Thai accountant has a different idea on how to book expenses.  I leave it to my wife to the business culture. She has been an invaluable asset. Her biggest merger transfer was 13.2 Billion Baht ( USD$325 million) I have never and will probably never in my lifetime expect to top that. 

I like your answer. Certain things I too never understood, so I am always taking feedback or request my daughters to handle certain transactions in Indonesia, Brunei and Malaysia because A/C are handled in the Bahasa language (except Malaysia).

If I needed any feedback on a Thai company, I just call the BBL owners and they do the digging for me because when it comes to Thai accounting you have to see the official books and the unofficial books.

On average in our industry, one in five will close. Forty people will express interest in a business before it’s acquired

I guess that is a very high number of around 20% in closings and you should be able to do very well in the future.

The bank of course is on their tail now just like when the banks were breaking down the doors before 1997 begging the hotels to borrow. Hotels can be very profitable but be careful of debt service if its in USD

Most hotels that I know, have problems and were dumped by the Top5 inbound operators (It works like this : The property has a 150 rooms and the inbound operator allots 1/2 of all rooms. If the operators doesn't send tourists every day the hotel don't care due to the fact that the rooms have been taken. (Those deals are mainly signed next week at the ITB fair, and as well at the ATF and London Travel Mart. Those three fairs generate 70% of all potential revenues for any resort at a tourism destination.

(In Bangkok the number is even higher for business from tour operators and that's why the official name of the hotels that have a Swiss, German or Austrian Manager work closely with those Swiss, German or Austrian Manager of the inbound operators) -

They are known in the industry as the German Speaking Tourism Mafia that can break any hotel property if they don't get what they want.

Is that to the Thai prisons? :-)

The reason why I use LOL was that I never heard any Thai was ever jailed for tax invasions and you pointed to prisons.

All the best to your business and happy Songkran next month.

Regards,

Wolfgang

BBL is the best bank in Thailand from my experience but I am a fan of Bank of Ayudhya as t/t and swift payments are cleared within 48 hours or at most 72 hours.

(Some T/T's from Australia take just 24 hours and I tried to wire it to my BBL account and it took 4 days)

A friend bought a business for 10m baht,seen the books etc, business folded after 3 months- revenue was promised at 100,000 baht a month but in reality was only 10,000 baht.

Peterexpat,

How much was the profit? To buy a business for 10 million Baht on a 100,000B monthly revenue is crazy.

The selling price should have been more at Baht 1 million at most. Was it a joke or did he really paid 10m?

Amazing but I guess the buyer must have been nuts too.

Ok, me too off to bed now !

Greg,

I agree with most of your posting to peterexpat but have some comments:

People that know me know that we value our reputation which is based on honesty

In business is no honesty ! Full stop

In the past 21 months, 1005 businesses listed with our company, the Thai Sellers owned 732 of the businesses, as we had three times more Thai buyers than foreigners

Can you explain about those listings? Are those listings free? Do you charge for getting listed? Do the companies that list with you pay you for the listing in advance?

peterexpat posted: " They never retire! They leave the business to there family or relatives. "

That I will disagree with 100%. If I had listened to the same wisdom, we never would have expanded to Thailand. I was with Sunbelt for 18 years in the USA and now going on 2 years in Thailand. Nobody thought we could get listings in Thailand as they pass it on to their family. People asking my wife “If she loved me? How could she let me expand here?” Boy were they wrong! We are the #1 office in the World out of 389 offices. The average Sunbelt office in the States gets 28 listings in a year. We get that in some weeks! This week we had 17 new listings.  Why do people sell? You imply it must because something is wrong with their business. I can give you many cases that they sell for human reasons, divorce, partnership disputes, health, relocation and retirement.

I have to agree in part with peterexpat - They never retire and if they do they pass it on to their close relatives. If they do bring in foreigners it is mainly based on technology transfer and new capital.

As long the business has a good cashflow, Asian's are not selling off the business because they want to retire. They sell it of because of a lot of pressure from the banks or because they loose marketshare.

Greg, you mentioned if I had listened to the same wisdom, we never would have expanded to Thailand. Why? Sunbelt is a franchise and a company that has been around for 2 years in Thailand doesn't mean much.

Two years in Thailand is good for a warm-up in understanding the way business is done but it doesn't makes you an expert on Thai accounting or the corporate culture of Thailand.

I am happy to hear that you have 1005 listings but how many deals have actually been closed?

The average Sunbelt office in the States gets 28 listings in a year.

What would interest me is how do they actually recover the franchise fees or do they make a profit on the listing fees?

An electrical generator manufacture company, one of the largest in Thailand.

I think if you say that your company is 100% confidential you wouldn't post that kind of information on a public forum about one of the largest aircon manafucturers in Thailand.

Successful Bangkok Transportation Company has been is existence for almost 20 years

Tell me one transportation company in Bangkok that is successful? They all swim in debts and hope for better times but lets hope that our current Bangkok Governor Samak will be soon history and it will be great for all bus companies in Bangkok.

Three or four star resorts

I come from the Tourism industry and I can easy say I know 85% of all owners in those 4 and 5 star hotels and resorts. (Not the mangement but the owners)

They all face challenges and the banks are on their tails.

Of 121 businesses acquired with us last year. I can tell you 119 good stories. Two bad…

This is excellent !!!

In Thailand, I feel that’s been the biggest shock to me on how many companies have good books versus the West. Much higher in Thailand. I must say its more foreign companies than Thai ones though but still around half paid their fair share of taxes. Must be the Thai prisons! However many other ways to find out if a  business is good without looking at tax records.

Laughing out Loud ! I am not sure where you got those details but I know many foreign companies that have clean books. OK, the companies I am talking about are companies with a minimum paid-up capital of 10 million Baht and I totally want to ignore those foreigners that run tailorshops (they never pay taxes), Internet cafe's, web hosting companies, bars etc. that are run by expats or Thai's.

Now, I have seen many Thai companies that too have a paid-up capital of 10 million Baht but they have screwed and cheated on taxes from the day they opened for business.

BTW: Thaksin Shinawatra is the first PM that seems to be able to be more on the balls of the tax scams and I appreciate him for that.

Totoro,

Thanks for your comments, I am becoming increasing more wary about getting a business in Thailand but I think that would go for getting a business anywhere really.

Just take your time and investigate proper. I would say if you are good in IT you could have excellent opportunities in Thailand. (I am getting at least 5 inquires per month within Thailand but I promised myself never again to work or be in partner for Farangs or Thais in this country - Thailand is a great way to retire as long you

have income from overseas.

What I will do is move out in a few months after I have sold my flat and spend a while researching different opportunities. The major problem is what I will do to get income during this period.

That's a good option and remember "keep your pounds in the UK" !

I came with 2 million Baht (around 80K USD) to Thailand many years back and lost it all. Don't trust anyone in this country or do deals with Bangkok's High Society only aka stay away from the Farang community.

PS: Don't buy any business in this country and only go on a partnership if your partner puts the exact amount in the business.

Any way good luck

I guess that love comes in all strange ways but I would venture to suggest that a for a farang female to marry a Thai she would have to be more deficient in the brain department that those farang men who marry Thai females

There is the risk of course that if you remain in Thailand he will take out a contract on you.

I think Somboon your posting is way over.

First of all I am a guy who has been married for over 24 years to the same woman (a Singaporean) and I know of several expats gals that are happy married to a Thai guy and when I asked the gals are you happy, they said YES and most said they enjoy the marriage.

What risk about a contract? You don't get popped down because of a divorce. If a lot of cash is involved the risk is their but rest assured that more farang guys or gals have been popped off in this country because of business dealings then for divorces or if you deal with the money girls from the bars of course they may too one day pop you off.

But the more I study...and more I live here..the less likely I am going to start any business here..Well..that is me.. ]

Kwiz117,

Me too

Totoro,

I have seen many European's that sold a house or flat and came with the money to Thailand. (Many failed and lost it all)

If I were you, hold on to the money for another year and find out how business is done in this country.

Any way with 50,000 USD, you should do ok for 2 years.

Bill Heineke who is a Baht Billionaire has 70,000 employees( Burger King, Sizzler, Dairy Queen, Swenson’s, owns cheese and ice-cream plants and several five star hotels. He started out in Thailand as a janitor in 1966.

The Heinike family has been rich from the start. I know Bill and Skip very well and many of those stories are press stuff.

One of the biggest revenues and profit comes in from the Pizza Co and he makes good money as an exclusive representative for the Piper airplane manufactuer.

.. but any way, he is a great business guy and I love those battles he had with Pizza Hut.

as far as I know score24.com xml feed is compatible to run with Carp an XML and RSS feed backend. (Not much scripting is needed and all you need is a guy that setup the scripts for you (shouldn't take more then an hour or two)

I'm also owning two other websites, so all in all it's pretty tough to programm and manage all by myself.

Same me, own only one website and things gets out of control sometimes

.. but as long the money comes in it's great and fun too.

Maybe you should post what products you want to ship from Thailand.

Well, it's off to Bangkok for me this coming Monday ! I'm a Malaysian representing a travel company that's interested in joint venturing with a Thai Travel company in cross selling their products and ours around the region.

Welcome to Thailand. Always nice to see more Malaysian companies entering the Thai market. As far as I know there are now 6 Malaysian in- and outbound operators in Thailand so a lot of space to for growth.

Is there some general guidelines that I have to look into on setting this deal in motion and would like to know the legal guidelines in this before I commit to a Thai Operator that we have yet to identify at this very moment.

Take an international law firm in this country.

Plus, as I'll be travelling to & fro KL,(approx. 3 weeks in BKK, 1 week in KL) monthly, will I be quizzed by the Thai authorities as to my frequency of travel ? Do I need to get a working visa for my business surveying activities whilst I'm in Thailand ?

None Immigrant B is fine for you. Don't even think coming on a social visit pass / tourist visa. Visa can be issued within one day from Thai Embassy in KL and no letter is needed from a Thai company.

Can someone help me with the right direction for these information ?

Hope this helps and all the best 4 u and your co in Thailand.

PS: Do you have any cheap hotel rates for FIT and GIT clients to Malaysia?

Note: Stay away from those Top5 tour operators in Thailand that are run by Swiss.

Are there other sources to receive financing in Thailand other than banks? I am wanting to open a retail store in the Siam area but the banks won't touch me since I do not own any property in Thailand.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

RSC

There are so many opportunities in Thailand to get funding. It comes to the point of how well you are connected and how much of your own funds you bring in.