Start with the activity, not the company
The Foreign Business Act restricts a defined list of activities to Thai majority ownership. Whether your plan is affected depends on what the business will actually do day to day — not on how its registered objectives are worded, which are usually drafted broadly and prove nothing either way. The first question is therefore always a description of the operation, in plain terms.
Route one — a Foreign Business Licence
Where the activity is restricted, a Foreign Business Licence is the direct route: an application assessed on the merits of the business, its benefit to Thailand and the technology or employment it brings. It is discretionary and it takes time, so it belongs in the plan from the beginning rather than after a lease has been signed and staff hired.
Route two — BOI promotion
For qualifying activities, promotion by the Board of Investment can carry foreign ownership together with tax and work-permit advantages. The trade-off is that promotion comes with conditions the company must keep meeting — investment levels, the promoted activity, reporting — so it suits a business whose plan genuinely matches a promoted category rather than one reverse-engineered to fit.
Route three — a treaty right
Certain nationalities hold treaty rights — the US Treaty of Amity being the best known — that permit majority or full ownership in many sectors on a registration rather than a discretionary basis. Eligibility turns on the nationality of the ultimate owners and on the sector, and some activities remain outside the treaty regardless.
The route that is not a route
Thai shareholders holding for a foreigner without genuine investment is unlawful, and it exposes the company, the foreign investor and the nominees themselves. It is common, and common is not the same as lawful. If none of the three routes fits the plan, the honest answer is that the plan needs changing — not that the shareholding needs disguising.