A rebound in tourist arrivals has supported listed companies on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) as they reported sales growth of 4.6% year-on-year in the first quarter to 4.4 trillion baht (roughly US$129 billion), with net profit edging up 1.7% to 265 billion baht.
Manpong Senanarong, senior executive vice-president of the SET, said 646 listed companies reported net profits, nearly 80% of the total that submitted their financial statements by March 31.
Production costs rose 3.1% over the same period a year ago, while selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses grew 6.8%, resulting in a 14.2% increase in core operating profits to 467 billion baht.
In terms of financial position as of March 31, listed companies’ debt-to-equity (D/E) ratio, excluding the financial industry, was steady at 1.52 times from a year earlier, he said.
The financial industry has benefited from higher interest rates, said Mr Manpong.
“The performance improved because of the recovery of tourism, resulting in better profits for tourism-related businesses such as hotels, airlines, rental spaces, retail and telecom,” he said.
While elevated interest rates contributed to a better financial performance for the financial industry, it may put pressure on financing costs for other industry groups, said Mr Manpong.
Listed companies on the Market for Alternative Investment (MAI) reported total sales of 54.0 billion baht for the first quarter, up 9.2% year-on-year.
Their operating profits jumped 40% to 5.26 billion baht, while combined net profits gained 76.2% to 4.61 billion.
Of the 211 companies that submitted financial statements by March 31, 73% reported net profits.
MAI president Prapan Charoen-prawatt said the stellar first-quarter performance was attributed to the outstanding performance by some listed companies and gains from fair value adjustments of financial and digital assets.
“MAI-listed companies posted higher sales and strived to control costs and SG&A expenses, resulting in improved overall performance in the first quarter,” said Mr Prapan.
“The agriculture and food, financial, industrial, property and construction, resources, and services industry groups delivered triple growth in sales, operating profits and net profits.”
Their financial structure was enhanced as their D/E ratio fell to 0.78 times at the end of March from 0.80 times end of last year, he said.
As of May 24, there were 221 MAI-listed companies with a total market capitalisation of 389 billion baht.