Bangkok--23 May--SET
- Net profits worth THB 1.82 billion, up 15.45 pct y-o-y
- Total sales up 15.72 pct y-o-y to THB 44.21 billion
- All industry groups posted sales growth, while Consumer Products, Property & Construction, Resources, Services and Technology also reported net profit growth.
Companies listed on Market for Alternative Investment (mai), reported a combined net profit at THB 1.82 billion (approx. USD 56.75 million), a 15.45 percent rise from the same period last year while total sales increased 15.72 percent from the same period a year earlier to THB 44.21 billion.
mai President Prapan Charoenprawatt said that the Q1 aggregate earnings were compiled from 146 mai-listed companies, or 97 percent of the total 151 firms (excluding those in the non-compliance group, and those not submitting the report in time), that submitted the performance report, ending March 31, 2018. There were 107 companies reported net profits, representing 73 percent of the total listed companies already disclosed their financial statements. The overall sales of listed companies were up 15.72 percent to THB 44.21 billion compared to the first quarter last year, whiletheir combined net profits rose 15.45 to THB 1.82 billion from the same period last year. However, the 18.38 percent rise of total cost to THB 34.5 billion pushed their gross profit margin down to 21.96 percent from 23.71 percent.
"In the first quarter this year, mai listed firms demonstrated strong both sales and net profit growth. However, their higher total cost, partly due to the increase of oil price, raw materials and transportation costs, pushed down the gross profit margin, while some companies were affected by the strong baht. The good sign was that all industry groups reported higher sales in Q1/2018 compared to the same period last year. Five industry groups out of eight also reported growing net profit namely Consumer Products, Property & Construction, Resources, Services, and Technology. In addition, Consumer Products and Services were the two industry groups that managed to maintain their gross profit margins," added Prapan.
When compared with Q4/2017, the total sales were up 4.61 percent, while the total costs increased by 5.88 percent, resulting in the gross profit margin to decrease 0.94 percent, while the net profit jumped 69.56 percent quarter-to-quarter.
mai-listed companies' financial status at end-Q1/2018 remained strong with debt-to-equity ratio at 1.03 times, same as at end-2017, while the total assets rose by 2.89 percent to THB 263.78 billion from the same period last year.
As of May 22, 2018, there were 151 mai-listed firms. The mai Index closed at 473.35 points, down 12.40 percent from the beginning of this year, with a total market capitalization of 298.5 billion (approx. USD 9.34 billion) and average daily trading value of THB 1.44 billion.