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- Q1 net profits worth THB 233 billion, a 0.96 pct rise from Q1/2015
- Total sales down 6.17 pct at THB 2.38 trillion
- Higher gross profit margins at 24.55 pct
Companies listed on The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) reported a net profit of THB 233.32 billion (approx. USD 6.6 billion) during the first quarter of 2016, growing 28.43 pct from Q4/2015, or up 0.96 percent from a year earlier, while sales decreased 6.17 percent y-o-y to THB 2.38 trillion (approx. USD 67.34 billion).
SET Senior Executive Vice President Santi Kiranand said aggregate earnings for Q1/2016 were compiled from 514 listed firms, or 92.28 percent of the total 557 companies (including property funds, infrastructure funds and real estate investment trusts and excluding non-compliance and non-performing groups), as of March 31, 2016. There were 423 companies making net profits, representing 75.94 percent of the total listed companies already disclosed their financial statements. Their total sales in the first quarter of 2016 dropped by 6.17 percent from the same period of 2015, resulting from sales decrease of Energy & Utilities and Petrochemicals & Chemicals sectors, affected by low oil prices. However, their net profit increased slightly by 0.96 percent, boosted by the rise of net profit of companies in Services and Consumer Products industries, from Property Development, Steel, Transportation & Logistics and Commerce sectors. Nevertheless, if excluding net profit of companies in Energy & Utilities and Petrochemicals & Chemicals sectors caused by falling oil prices since 2015, the sales of listed companies in Q1/2016 could be seen a 4.03 percent increase, while net profits remained stable compared to the same period last year.
Comparing to Q4/2015, the net profit of listed companies recorded 28.43 percent increase, while sales were 7.42 percent decrease. The debt-to-equity ratio (excluding those in Financials industry) in Q1/2016 was at 1.27 times, up from 1.24 at end-2015, while their interest bearing debt-to-equity ratio (excluding those in Financials industry) was slightly increased from end-2015 to 0.69 times.
"The total revenue of the Thai listed companies in the first quarter of 2016 was mainly affected by lower oil prices. The other side of the coin is that this has benefited other companies on lower production cost. Therefore, the total gross profit margin in Q1/2016 rose to 24.55 percent from 21.74 percent a year earlier,” added Santi.
By sector, 21 sectors reported higher net profit margins, showing recover signs of Thai listed firms. In addition, ten sectors reported both higher sales, profits, and gross margins, mostly companies related to Services and Consumer products industries, comprising of Transportation & Logistics, Food&Beverage, Property Development, Construction Services, Steel, Commerce, Packaging, Fashion, Home & Office Products and Professional Services sectors.
Meanwhile, companies listed on Market for Alternative Investment (mai), reported sales of THB 31.04 billion (approx. USD 876.72 million) in the first quarter of 2016, a 0.14 percent decrease from the same period a year earlier, while net profit decreased 19.47 percent to 1.78 billion (approx. USD 50.34 million). Their Q1/2016 gross profit margins decreased to a 24.24 percent from 25.48 in Q1/2015.
