Bualuang Securities (BLS) targets keeping its revenue share at 7% of the securities brokerage market this year while increasing its customer expansion to twice the industry rate.
The goal will be challenging amid intense industry competition, said president Pichet Sithi-Amnuai.
"We managed to maintain second place for revenue share after Maybank Kim Eng Securities Thailand last year. Our revenue share rose to 7.23% last year, up from 6.81% the previous year," he said.
The company's earnings were the largest among its industry peers for a second straight year.
Its net profit amounted to 1.07 billion baht in 2016, down from 1.14 billion the previous year. Total revenue fell to 3.22 billion baht in 2016 from 3.45 billion in 2015.
The company held the largest market share in derivative warrants business for the sixth consecutive year in 2016 at 30-40%. It was fourth in securities brokerage market share at 4.56%.
Even though the stock market's average trading volume expanded by 16% to 47 billion baht, brokerage fees averaged only 8% growth to 29 billion baht in 2016.
Bannarong Pichyakorn, managing director of sales and trading business, said the company preferred adding new customers to encouraging existing customers to trade more. BLS wants its new customer growth to be twice the industry rate this year.
With this strategy, the company can keep its position as a premium broker and avoid pricing wars that would cause it to suffer if daily trading volume declines.
He said BLS just teamed up with Thammasat University to open an "Investment Space" at a company branch with the aim of inspiring students to invest. The branch will provide an internship programme for these students.
The company has more than 250,000 securities trading accounts, up from 240,000 at the end of last year, and the active rate is around 55%.
BLS forecast the SET index would be 1,627 points at the year-end, based on an assumption of a price-to-earnings (PE) ratio of 15-18 times.
Mr Pichet said the PE assumption is quite high because of liquidity-driven capital inflows.