Sri Trang Group's credit rating has been upgraded to A with a stable outlook.
Tris Rating raised the company's stability from A- with a positive outlook, citing the strength of the firm's operations and finances as it aims to increase global sales and market share.
Veerasith Sinchareonkul, the chief executive and director of Sri Trang Agro-Industry Plc (STA), said the upgrade by Tris testified to the operational strength of the group, which consists of STA and Sri Trang Gloves Thailand Plc (STGT), and serves to bolster investors' and shareholders' confidence in the group.
"Sri Trang Group is pleased with Tris Rating's upgrade of our corporate and debenture credit ratings. We are determined to keep increasing our sales and market share in both the natural rubber industry and the glove industry to improve our performance and deliver higher returns to our shareholders," Mr Veerasith said.
The company said the upgrade of corporate and debenture ratings underlined the overall strength of the natural rubber industry and the glove industry, and illustrated Sri Trang Group's operational strength and competitiveness, effective risk management, strong finances, and debt repayment capacity.
Meanwhile, Sri Trang Group posted a strong performance as sales volumes continued to increase.
In the first quarter of this year, STA reported 28 billion baht in revenue and a net profit of 1.51 billion baht.
Sales volumes of natural rubber products saw year-on-year growth of 7%, and a 1% rise over the previous quarter to 349,000 tonnes, a higher increase than overall industry growth.
As for STGT, the company recorded 7.12 billion baht in revenue and a net profit of 1.05 billion baht during the same period.
Sales volumes also increased 18% year-on-year, with a 4% rise compared to the preceding quarter. The company said this reflected STGT's ability to expand into new markets, develop new products to increase sales, and adjust production lines to focus on higher-margin products as global demand for gloves remained robust.