South Korean companies are less active in overseas mergers and acquisitions (M&As) than their counterparts in other countries since they involve huge funds and high risks, a report showed Thursday.

Local companies spent a total of 51.2 trillion won ($43.2 billion) to acquire or merge with other firms last year, but the portion of overseas M&As came to a mere 400 billion won, according to the report by the Korea Economic Research Institute.

The ratio averaged 3.6 percent over the 2010-2014 period, hovering far below the 61.6 percent for Japanese companies.

Kim Soo-yeon, a researcher at the think tank, said the biggest hurdles to local firms' overseas M&As are huge funds required and investment risks resulting from complex administrative procedures.

In light of that, the Seoul government should come up with measures to induce South Korean companies to actively push for more overseas M&As, Kim said.

"Local companies need to expand M&As of overseas companies with patents, which will enable them to adopt their technology, human resources and sales networks over a short period of time," the researcher said.

Samsung Electronics Co. was able to take the lead in its mobile payment tool, referring to Samsung Pay, through a merger, Kim added.

Samsung Pay, available through the latest Samsung devices, is compatible with existing credit card devices. In February, Samsung bought U.S. mobile technology firm LoopPay Inc., which has patent rights to the technology. (Yonhap)