Family control is prevalent in Thailand and important for the country’s economic development, particularly in capital markets. Based on ownership structure, family firms are dominant players in the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), and they comprise about 60.27% of Thai non-financial listed companies by the end of 2015. Family firms which are typically controlled and managed entirely by founding families (Claessens et al. 2000) tend to rely on external equity financing for additional capital and growth opportunities (Connelly et al. 2012). The relationships between people in family firms can still be tracked by surnames of controlling families, which are unique and protected by Thai law (Bunkanwanicha et al. 2013). These types of firms contribute to the country’s GDP growth and total market capitalization of listed companies in Thailand, by more than 25% and 33%, respectively (Forbes Thailand 2015).
References
Bunkanwanicha, P., Fan, J.P., Wiwattanakantang, Y., 2013. The value of marriage to family firms. Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis 48, 611-636
Claessens, S., Djankov, S., Lang, L.H., 2000. The separation of ownership and control in East Asian corporations. Journal of Financial Economics 58, 81-112
Forbes Thailand, 2015. Thailand’s 50 Richest. URL https://www.marketingoops.com/news/forbes-thailand-50-richest-2015/
Swanpitak, T., Pan, X., Suardi, S., 2020a. Family control and cost of debt: Evidence from Thailand. Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, 101376.