The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) has revised trading resumption criteria for listed companies on both the SET and the Market for Alternative Investment (MAI), requiring those firms to have a higher amount of shareholders' equity and net profit over the past year.
The trading resumption criteria for listed companies under a delisting review takes effect from the beginning of 2025, aligning with new listing standards, the bourse said in a statement on Tuesday.
To qualify for trading resumption, SET-listed companies under a delisting review must have shareholders' equity of 800 million baht, up from 300 million baht now, and for companies listed on MAI the amount is doubled to 100 million baht from 50 million.
In terms of net profit, delisted companies on the main bourse would be required to have a profit of 75 million baht over the past four quarters, up from 30 million now. For MAI-listed firms, they must report a net profit of 25 million baht over the period, compared with 10 million now.
Listed companies under delisting review must satisfy the enhanced requirements to validate their financial soundness and performance. These amendments were approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission following market consultations, and are effective from Jan 1, 2025, the statement noted.
The SET also announced the expansion of its caution sign framework to cover trusts, property funds and infrastructure funds.
Under the revised framework, also taking effect on Jan 1, the funds are subject to the caution signs CB (business), CS (financial statement), CC (non-compliance), and CF (free float) when they experience risks or incidents that could impact their financial positions, business operations or liquidity status, or demonstrate non-compliance.
The framework only applies to listed companies now.
According to the SET, trading of funds flagged with caution signs must be made through cash balance accounts only. The funds must conduct an initial public presentation within 15 days from the sign posting date and subsequently provide quarterly progress updates to facilitate prudent and informed investment decisions among unitholders and investors.
In related news, the SET released the operating results of listed companies for the first nine months of this year, with combined net profit dipping 5.4% year-on-year, while sales grew 7.8% to 13.2 trillion baht.
The decrease in net profit was attributed to the performance of oil and petrochemical businesses, which suffered a decline in prices. Excluding these businesses, net profit increased by about 8%, said SET president Asadej Kongsiri.
Of the 810 listed companies that submitted financial statements, 617 or 76.2% reported a profit. Listed companies had a core profit of 1.2 trillion baht and a net profit of 687 billion baht, decreases of 2.1% and 5.4% respectively.
Oil and petrochemical businesses posted a net profit decline of 32.3% for the first nine months year-on-year.
Excluding the energy and utilities and petrochemicals and chemicals categories, companies reported increases in sales, core profit and net profit of 11%, 13.2% and 8.4%, respectively.
"The tourism industry showed marked improvement from the previous year, driving growth across tourism-related and service industries, including food and beverage, consumer products, hospitality, aviation, property rental, retail, healthcare and telecom," said Mr Asadej.
The financial sector maintained growth momentum amid high interest rates, but declining oil prices and refining margins in the third quarter adversely impacted oil and petrochemical businesses, leading to lower overall net profits despite revenue growth, he said.
Companies on the MAI posted total sales of 156 billion baht, up 5.9% year-on-year. With effective containment of production costs and expenses, they achieved an operating profit of 11.4 billion baht and a net profit of 6.3 billion baht, up 31% and 27% respectively.