- Higher costs and sales expenses pulled earnings down 21.30 pct to THB 1.98 bln
- All industry groups posted sales rise, while Property & Construction, Services ,and Technology reporting both growing sales and net profits.
Companies listed on Market for Alternative Investment (mai), reported the combined net profit of THB 1.98 billion (approx. USD 58.15 million) in the first half of 2017, a 21.30 percent decrease from H1/2016, while their sales increased 10.85 percent y-o-y to THB 71.02 billion.
mai President Prapan Charoenprawatt said the aggregate amount came from 133 companies, accounting for 96 percent of the total 138 firms that filed their H1/2017 financial reports as of June 30, 2017 (excluding non-compliance and non-performing groups), of which 88 companies or about 66 percent made net profits. Even though, their gross profit grew 6.60 percent to THB 16.34 billion, their gross profit margin decreased slightly to 23.01 percent from 23.93 percent in the same period last year.
"In the first half of 2017, mai-listed firms reported sales growth, while the aggregate net profit gradually dropped due to higher costs and sales expenses. Another factor determining profitability was from higher cost of fund as many firms continued investment in H1. Categorized by industry groups, sales of all the eight industries increased and three industries reported both sales and net profit rise, namely Property & Construction, Services ,and Technology.
At the end of H1/2017, the capital structure of mai-listed firms was considered healthy withthe debt-to-equity ratio at 0.99 times, slightly down from 1.05 at end-2016", added Prapan.
In the second quarter of 2017, the total sales of mai-listed companies recorded a 9.64 percent increase to THB 35.74 billion, when compared to Q2/2016, while gross profit was at THB 8.07 billion, up 3.12 pct. The net profit decreased 43.55 percent to 761 million, and the gross profit margin decreased to 22.57 percent from 23.99 percent in Q2/2016.
As of August 21, 2017, there were 139 mai-listed companies and the mai Index closed at 532.37 points, down 13.61 percent from the beginning of this year, with a total market capitalization of THB 305.62 billion (USD 9 billion) and average daily trading value of 2.24 billion.