During March, we visited several Thai Securities companies and saw their approach to dealing with the decline in brokerage and investment banking. In most cases, the answer is simple. They try to diversify their revenue base outside what used to be their core businesses in retail brokerage, and each of their situation are unique. Unable to crack the institutional business properly, Finansia Syrus diversified its various initiatives especially on the online trading front by investing in SBI (a Japanese online broker) joint venture. The more adept Asia Plus, whose CEO Dr. Kongkiat is much celebrated, managed to hold out well through proprietary investments and asset management, which created more stable recurring income, though they also struggled on institutional research. AIRA, a much smaller broker, diversified way off field into new areas such as leasing. During the meeting, Dr. Kongkiat also shared his views on international investing for Thai net worth investors, and we gotta admit he's surprisingly bullish yo.

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