Shortly I will be undertaking a business venture involving myself and 3 other farang parters.

We will be leasing 5 rai of land over 30 years and will be clearing the land and amongst other things will be building a restaurant and a bar.

Originally there were two partners who were going to set up a company in the name of their girlfriends though obviously the new partners want some form of formal ownership.

I understand that less costs are involved with setting up a thai company so this is a consideration

So my questions are;

1) What are my best (and by best I mean safest and most cost effective) options here to share ownership of the company between the four partners ?

2) Should I setup the company before signing the lease of the land so that the company can own the lease as opposed to the

lease being in the name of the partners and the girlfriends ?

3) We do not plan on opening until the first of the year but we may actively be involved in fund raising. At what point would we require work permits ?

4) As I mentioned earlier, it is my understanding that there are less costs involved with setting up a thai company, IE less taxes. What exactly is the difference between a thai company and a farang one as I thought that all companies had to be thai owned by at lease 51%.

You have to have Thai partners as well and they have to number more than the falangs, in your case you will need five Thais. Good luck.

The falangs cannot own more than 49% and 39% is better as it attracts less attention.

Company can be controlled by issue of preference shares (we call them common shares in the west) and issue of ordinary shares (preferred shares in the west). Ordinary shares are worth 10 votes each, preference shares are worth 1 vote each. This is legal, as it is in most other countries beyond the barter economy stage.