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- Q3 net profits, revenues improved year-on-year, but dropped from Q2
- Debt to equity ratios move higher in Q3 on increasing investment
- Profits down from Q2 as rising expenses outpaced revenues
The financial status of Thai listed companies remained strong in July-September, with a 3.85 percent growth of net profit from a year earlier due to increasing sales and services revenues, but the profits were lowered than in the previous quarter, signaling the slowdown of revenues and operating profits, according to The Stock Exchange of Thailand's (SET) research data.
In the third quarter, the companies' overall ROE dropped to 3.76 percent, compared with 4.00 percent in the same quarter of last year, after posting aggregate net earnings of THB 152.27 billion (approx. USD 4.91 billion), while their sales and services revenues rose to THB 2.19 trillion (USD 70.76 billion), the data in SET Note Quarterly Corporate Update shows.
Comparing with the previous quarter, operating profits fell 8.29 percent, while net profits decreased 9.55 percent, hit by increasing costs of production and management.
By industry, half of them reported higher net profit from a year earlier and the second quarter of this year. However, five industries reported falling net profits from the previous quarter: that are, Agro and Food, Consumer Products, Industrials, Rehabilitation, and Resources. They were hit by higher production costs and decreasing foreign exchange gains, especially for energy and steel firms.
Indices used to gauge listed firms' financial health largely fell, both from a year earlier and the previous quarter, following the direction of net profits, with a collective third-quarter net profit margin at 6.54 percent, down from 7.87 percent a year ago and 7.23 percent in the previous quarter. Meanwhile, debt to equity ratios increased to 1.30 times, compared with 1.15 a year ago and 1.27 in the second quarter, due partly to rising investment for future expansions.
Capital expenditure rose to THB 105.90 billion compared both with the same period of last year and the previous quarter, mainly pushed up by investment of the Resources industry from big-cap energy firms, which are PTT pcl, Banpu pcl, and Bangchak Petroleum pcl.
In the third quarter, the companies raised THB 7.77 billion (USD 251 million) through equities, down from a year earlier and the previous quarter. Of the amount, THB 3.0 billion was from initial public offerings of two newly-listed firms and one property fund, another THB 4.77 billion via secondary equity offerings.
