7. Timing cross-border acquisition (intermediate). GE Capital, a global leader in automobile leasing, started to scrutinize possible acquisitions in Thailand in the early 1990s when the THB was pegged to the U.S. dollar at THB 25 = US$1.

With healthy economic growth at better than 7.5 percent per year and a rapidly expanding car manufacturing industry, Thailand was indeed ripe for a strong market entry by GE. Ultimately, GE Capital delayed its acquisition of Tisco automobile leasing operations until 1998 – more than a year after the historic devaluation of the baht had unleashed the Asian financial crisis. GE Capital closed its acquisition at a much-devalued baht of THB 57 = US$1. Time being of the essence, had GE Capital waited too long and itself fallen victim of the Asian financial crisis?