Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) Senior Executive Vice President - Head of Issuer & Listing Division Manpong Senanarong said that 764 companies or 97.4 percent of 784 companies listed on SET and mai (excluding property funds, infrastructure funds and non-compliance or NC) reported their performance during the first quarter of 2022, ending March 31, 2022. A total of 571 companies reported net profits, representing 74.7 percent of the SET and mai-listed companies that submitted their financial statements.In the January-to-March 2022 versus a year ago, SET-listed companies' combined sales surged 37.5 percent to THB 4.01 trillion (approx. USD 117.22 billion) while production costs rose 42.2 percent to THB 3.11 trillion. However, core operating profits increased 27.6 percent to THB 478.79 billion. The higher production costs could be partly attributed to the rising oil and commodities prices, and the COVID-19 insurance claims. Their aggregate net profit dropped 1.7 percent to THB 246.85 billion, caused by extra items such as losses from derivatives contracts.If excluding the Insurance sector, listed companies' net profits grew 11.1 percent year-on-year to THB 275.47 billion.Listed companies' operating profit margin and net profit margin were 11.93 percent and 6.15 percent respectively, lower than the same period a year earlier. Regarding financial status, as of March 31, 2022, Thai listed companies (excluding those in the Financials industry group) had debt-to-equity ratio at 1.61 times, up from 1.51 times recorded a year earlier.Quarterly performance
(THB million)Q1/2021Q4/2021Q1/2022% y-o-y% q-o-qSales2,918,4323,769,6054,011,94937.56.4Production costs2,186,1372,964,6463,108,28142.24.8Core operating profit375,142350,287478,79327.636.7Net profit251,198249,241246,852-1.7-1.0Core operating profit margin (%)12.859.2911.93 Net profit margin (%)8.616.616.15 "The easing of COVID-19 measures in Thailand and other countries came as a boon to Services industry group such as Health Care Services, Commerce, Transportation & Logistics, and Tourism & Leisure sectors. Although the surge in oil prices boosted sales for Energy & Utilities, and Petrochemicals & Chemicals sectors, it also affected costs of production in other listed companies, narrowing their overall profit margin, as a result. In the foreseeable future, they may face the increasing challenge of business operation environment, not only from the surging oil and commodities price but also inflation and interest rate hike," added Manpong.As for the performance of companies listed on Market for Alternative Investment (mai) in the first quarter of 2022, combined sales amounted to THB 48.38 billion, or up 20.4 percent year-on-year. Their cost of sales rose 25.6 percent from the same period last year to THB 38.44 billion, and operating profits fell 7.2 percent to THB 2.50 billion.