- Combined sales up 11.93 pct to THB 28.5 bln
- Rising operation costs led to decline in overall net profits
- EA, CRANE, AIE, BROOK and UEC post largest net profits
In the first quarter of 2014, companies listed on Market for Alternative Investment (mai), under the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) group, reported combined sales of THB 28.5 bln (approx. USD 877 mln), an 11.93 percent increase from a year ago while aggregate net profits declined as a result of rising operating costs.
mai President Prapan Charoenprawatt said that there were 95 out of 97 mai-listed companies completed the filing of their earnings reports as of March 31, 2014 (one firm has not submitted while the other’s due date is coming up). Out of these, 69 companies or 71 percent recorded a net profit, with 36 firms registered a year-on-year increase in their net profits. All companies that have filed the reports registered total sales of THB 28.5 bln (approx. USD 877 mln), up 11.93 percent from the same period last year, while their cost of sales also increased 15.07 percent – a comparatively high rise. Accordingly, their combined gross profit margin decreased to 20.32 percent. With a 14.31 percent rise in operating costs, mai-listed firms’ aggregate net profits declined to THB 1.43 bln (approx. USD44.2 mln) from THB 1.89 bln (approx. USD58.4 mln) recorded a year earlier.
“The economic slowdown in Thailand has hit combined net profits of mai-listed companies of all business sectors from Financials to Industrials and Services, which in particular have been affected considerably by delays in spending and investment. To be classified by industry starting from 2015, the Financials industry group suffered falling sales, while the remaining seven industry groups enjoyed higher sales in this first quarter. However, in general, the cost of sales and the operating costs of listed companies have gone up at a higher rate than the increase in their sales, resulting in smaller net profits. Meanwhile, the Resources and Consumption industry group were the only two groups that could maintain the net profit growth,” said Prapan.
Across the market, five companies with the largest net profit in Q1/2014 are Energy Absolute plc (EA) with net profit of THB 460 mln , Chu Kai plc (CRANE) THB 157 mln , AI energy plc (AIE) THB 85 mln, The Brooker Group plc (BROOK) THB 73 mln and Unimit Engineering plc (UEC) THB 58 mln, respectively. mai firms that can manage to maintain their net profit growth in the first three months are those that carried out adjustments in their business strategies, those that could control cost and those actually realized the real revenue gain resulted from their recent investment plans.
As of May 19, 2014, the total of 97 companies have been listed on mai. The mai index closed at 417.38 points, up 16.98 percent since the beginning of the year, with a total market capitalization of THB 186.4 bln (approx. USD 5.73 bln) and average daily trading value of THB 1.46 bln (approx. USD 45 mln).