Market for Alternative Investment (mai)-listed companies reported total sales in the first half of 2022 rose 23.80 percent on year to THB 99.90 billion (approx.. USD 2.78 billion), while cumulative operating profit dropped 3.60 percent to THB 5.02 billion due to increasing cost of sales.
mai President Prapan Charoenprawatt said that 181 mai-listed companies, accounting for 96 percent of the total 188 companies (excluding those in the non-compliance or NC list and those with different closing dates for accounting periods) submitted their operating results for the first half of 2022. A total of 127 companies reported net profits, representing 70 percent of all the companies that submitted financial statements.
mai-listed companies' cost of sales which rose 29.20 per cent year-on-year to THB 79.36 billion for the first six months of 2022 outpaced the rise in combined sales, narrowing gross profit margin to 20.60 percent from 23.90 percent in the same period last year and lowering operating profits. The total net profit in the first half of 2022, however, rose 14.40 percent on year to THB 4.28 billion owing to a one-off profit amounting to THB 1.42 billion from the divestment of a power plant recorded by a listed company in the January-to-March period.
In the six months to June, four industry groups namely Property & Construction, Services, Technology, and Agro & Food industry delivered higher operating profits.
For the second quarter of 2022, mai-listed companies' total sales soared 25.90 percent from the same period a year earlier to THB 51.52 billion, overall operating profit fell 2.40 percent to THB 2.53 billion, while total net profit rose 1.2 percent to THB 1.53 billion.
"In the first half of 2022, most listed companies recorded sales growth in line with the ease of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, with exception of those from financials business group. However, the rising oil and commodity prices pushed up total cost of sales, and then lowered listed companies' profit margin. All in all, listed companies managed to control selling and administrative expenses to sales ratio, resulting in a slight decrease total operating profit. In addition, certain businesses started to pick up such as restaurant, event and tourism-related business groups, among others," added Prapan.
In terms of financial position, mai-listed firms' total assets increased 5.56 percent from the end of 2021 to THB 302.58 billion in the first six months of 2022, with stronger capital structure as seen by the lower debt-to-equity ratio (D/E ratio) to 0.92 time from 1.02 times over the same period.
Currently, there are 188 companies listed on mai. As of August 24, 2022, mai Index closed at 641.12 points, with the total market capitalization of THB 550.91 billion and average daily trading value of THB 6.32 billion.