China's Great Wall Motors (GWM) on Monday announced its decision to purchase the car manufacturing facility of General Motors (GM) in Rayong, Thailand. This is the company's third such acquisition outside China in recent months, which experts say is a sign of a shift in the automaker's development plan.

The sport utility vehicles (SUV) and pickup maker said it has entered a binding agreement with General Motors to acquire the U.S. automaker's car plant and engine factory in Thailand by the end of 2020.

The Chinese company has already acquired a factory in Russia's Tula region, which was put into operation in June 2019. On January 17, it initiated the acquisition of GM's factory in Talegaon, India.

The company has also shown signs of expansion through public share issuance. On January 31, GWM announced a plan to issue 178,349,900 shares of publicly-traded A shares or 1.954 percent of the company's shares outstanding at the time of the announcement. It also said it expects to issue 68,440,900 restricted shares, or 0.750 percent of the company's shares outstanding, and 109,909,000 shares of stock options.

The expansion of the company to overseas markets comes at a time when the domestic auto market is losing steam and a new coronavirus outbreak that experts say will dampen demand for vehicles. Car sales in China decreased by 8.2 percent in 2019 from a year earlier, according to industry data.

Liu Xiangshang, GWM's global strategy vice president, said the auto markets in ASEAN countries represent huge potentials and prospects. "Entering the Thai market is an important global strategy for Great Wall Motors to enter other ASEAN countries in the future."