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Published on August 10, 2007

JAIC has been in Thailand for 19 years and on Wednesday changed its status from a representative office to a company. Its accumulated investment in the Kingdom is about $200 million.

It is the only Japanese venture capital-fund manager with an office in Thailand.

However, its investment in the Thai market remains small, representing only 1-2 per cent of global investment by its parent firm, Japan Asia Investment, at $800 million.

JAIC (Thailand) president Nobuyuki Inomata yesterday said his company was studying six or seven Thai companies and next month or in October would decide on investing $1 million to $3 million in each of at least three or four of them. The firms are in the auto-parts, electronics, manufacturing, logistics-solutions and Internet-content sectors.

"Each year, we would like to invest at least $5 million. It is the policy from our parent company. And we believe that we need to diversify in terms of business sector and number of companies. This year may be a good year or a bad year, no one knows. So we need to generalise. We also aim to invest around this amount again next year," Inomata said.

However, the financial crisis 10 years ago taught the company well, causing it to avoid investing in property or construction firms, although Inomata said a selective choice might be preferred.

Before the 1997 economic crisis, JAIC (Thailand) invested only in Japanese-owned firms, but its policy is now to cover firms with potential for a bourse listing.

In terms of the investment climate, Inomata believes the political situation in Thailand should improve soon.

"We've been in Thailand for a long time, almost 20 years, and I believe the situation will improve," he said. "And I think this is the right time to invest. There are still opportunities in Thailand. Although things have happened, business itself has basically not changed, both in Thailand and in Japan."

Inomata said the appreciation of the baht had not had much effect on his investments. He will consider investment in export companies if they have proper solutions for handling the baht.

Oranan Opaweewun,

Jiwamol Kanoksilp

The Nation