SET-Listed Firms Post 9-Month Growth On Tourism Boost While Net Profit Weakens From Oil Business Amid Oil Price Dips

KEY POINTS

• SET-listed companies reported 7.8% year-on-year revenue growth for 9-month period, in line with GDP expansion driven by tourism upswing.
• Overall net profit edged down due to oil and petrochemical businesses amid lower oil price, but recorded growth excluding these sectors.

SET President Asadej Kongsiri revealed that 810 listed companies, representing 98.8 percent of the total 820 listed companies (comprising SET- and mai-listed companies scheduled to submit financial statements ended September 30, 2024 and excluding property funds, infrastructure funds and listed companies with different closing date for accounting periods) already submitted their third-quarter operating results. Of these, 617 listed companies or 76.2 percent reported net profits.

For the first nine months of 2024, SET-listed firms posted total sales of THB 13.17 trillion (approx. USD 408.26 billion), representing a 7.8 percent increase year-on-year. However, higher production costs and selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses, which rose 8.8 percent and 10.0 percent respectively, resulted in a 2.1 percent decline in core operating profit to THB 1.21 trillion and a 5.4 percent drop in net profit to THB 686.49 billion. Excluding Energy & Utilities and Petrochemicals & Chemicals industry groups, listed companies recorded growth in sales, core operating profit and net profit by 11.0 percent, 13.2 percent and 8.4% respectively. As of September 30, 2024, the debt-to-equity (D/E) ratio of Thai listed companies (excluding Financials industry group) decreased from 1.60 times to 1.54 times.

“The tourism industry showed marked improvement from the previous year, driving  growth across tourism-related and service industries, including food and beverage, consumer products, hospitality, aviation, property rental, retail, healthcare and telecommunications. The financial sector maintained positive growth momentum amid high interest rate environment. However, declining oil prices and refining margins in the third quarter adversely impacted oil and petrochemical businesses, leading to lower overall net profit despite revenue growth,” said Asadej.

mai-listed companies maintained their growth in the first nine months of 2024, posting total sales of THB 155.84 billion, representing a 5.9 percent year-on-year increase. With effective containment of production costs and SG&A expenses, they achieved an operating profit of THB 11.36 billion and a net profit of THB 6.30 billion, up 31.0 percent and 27.2 percent respectively.