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- Nine-month net profits of listed companies up 7.98 pct from a year earlier
- Sales rose 4.27 pct despite slowing economic growth in Q3
- Q3 net profit fell 5.81 pct from a year earlier
Companies listed on The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) report a net profit of THB 608.67 billion (approx. USD 19.32 billion) in January-September, up 7.98 percent from a year earlier, while sales rose 4.27 percent to THB 8.02 trillion in the January-September period.
Aggregate earnings were compiled from 469 listed firms, or 94.18 percent of the total 498 companies (excluding non-compliance and non-performing groups), in the first nine months of this year, ending September 30. There were 384 companies making net profits, representing 81.88 percent of the total listed companies disclosing their financial statements.
In the third quarter, net profits of the 469 listed firms were at THB 203.20 billion, down 5.81 percent from the same period last year, while sales rose 6.87 percent to THB 2.78 trillion and gross profit margins dropped slightly from a year earlier, and net profit margins also decreased to 7.31 percent from 8.29 percent, while debt to equity ratio (excluding financials) was at 1.29 times.
"Overall sales in the third quarter remained growing, helped by rising sales from Energy and Utilities, Commerce, Banking, Construction Materials, and Property Development sectors. However, Thailand’s economy has grown slowly due to a household expense slowdown, shrinking consumption, decreasing private and government investment, and more caution in making bank loans. These factors have also affected Banking, Finance and Securities, Property, Transportation & Logistics, Information and Communication Technology, and businesses related to consumer products, signaling that their revenues growth rate are going to slow down,” said SET Executive Vice President Chanitr Charnchainarong.
“Profitability of listed companies dropped in the third quarter due to fiercer competition, shrinking domestic consumption and investment, while sales and services demand from overseas markets have slowly recovered and were highly volatile. These factors caused difficulty for companies in raising product prices despite higher costs of products and services. In addition, higher costs of sales and administration, a volatile foreign exchange rate, rising interest costs, and lower gains from restructuring also hit their performances,” Chanitr added.
The top five firms, in descending order of net profit-making, were PTT plc (PTT), PTT Exploration and Production plc (PTTEP), Siam Commercial Bank plc (SCB), Kasikornbank plc (KBANK) and Siam Cement plc (SCC).
Financials, Resources, and Property and Construction were the top three best performers in term of industry. By sector, the top three best performers, in descending sequence, were: Energy and Utilities, Banking, and Information and Communication Technology, with a combined net profit of THB 372 billion, or 61.12 percent of the total earnings and the combined sales were THB 4.39 trillion, contributing 54.73 percent of the total.
