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- Net profits worth THB 697 billion, dropped by 1.37 pct from 2014, Q4 earnings grew 152 pct.
- Total sales down 9.35 pct at THB 10.37 trillion
- 2015 gross profit margins rose to 22.31 pct
Companies listed on The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) reported 2015 net profit of THB 697 billion (approx. USD 19.6 billion), a 1.37 percent drop from a year earlier, while sales decreased 9.35 percent to 10.37 trillion (approx. USD 292 billion).
SET Senior Executive Vice President Santi Kiranand said aggregate earnings were compiled from 541 listed firms, or 97.13 percent of the total 557 companies (excluding non-compliance and non-performing groups), as of December, 2015. There were 441 companies making net profits, representing 81.52 percent of the total listed companies already disclosed their financial statements. Their total sales in 2015 dropped by 9.35 percent from 2014 to THB 10.37 trillion, while total net profit were 697 billion, slightly dropped by 1.37 pct from a year ago, resulting from net profit decrease of Energy & Utilities and Steel sectors affected by inventory losses, reduction of oil and steel prices, as well as net profit decrease of Banking sector from increasing non-performing loan provision. However, if excluding net profit of companies in Energy & Utilities and Steel sectors, the 2015 net profit of listed companies could be seen a 5.95 percent increase, and sales a 1.33 percent drop.
In the quarter 4/2015, combined net profit was THB 170.3 billion, a 152.54 percent increase from the same quarter of 2014, while total sales were THB 2.58 trillion (approx. USD 72.8 billion), down 7.50 percent, resulting from higher profit in Energy & Utilities and Petrochemicals & Chemicals sectors. Comparing quarter to quarter, net profit of listed companies was 189 percent increase, and their sales were 2.47 percent increase. The debt-to-equity ratio (excluding those in Financial industry) in Q4/2015 was at 1.18 times, down from 1.23 in the same period of 2014, reflecting to the strength of listed firms’ capital structure.
"The overall performance of the Thai listed companies in 2015 was affected by a drop in sales in the Energy & Utilities, Steel and Petrochemicals & Chemicals sectors due to lower price of steel and crude oil prices. However, this benefited other companies as they could have lower production cost. Therefore, the total gross profit margin in 2015 rose to 22.31 percent from 18.69 percent a year earlier,” added Santi.
By sector, 17 sectors reported higher net profits, except Steel sector. There were nine sectors reported both higher sales, profit, and gross margin, in descending order of net profits, Information & Communication Technology, Commerce, Food & Beverage, Health Care Services, Finance & Securities, Automotive, Fashion, Tourism & Leisure, Professional Services, as a result of government stimulus program to boost domestic spending, automotive-part business recently recovered from exports and their effective cost management.
Meanwhile, companies listed on Market for Alternative Investment (mai), under The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) group, reported sales of THB 124.8 billion (approx. USD 3.5 billion) in 2015, a 1.79 percent increase from a year earlier, while net profit increased 10.19 percent to 5.7 billion (approx. USD 161 million). Their 2015 gross profit margins rose to 24.33 pct from 21.27 in 2014.
