Companies listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand earned a record $180 billion in revenues from overseas ventures and foreign investments during 2023, representing a 34 percent increase from the previous year and a strong sign of Thai business prowess.
“Last year, the global economy danced on a tightrope, but Thai companies confidently shattered records, bagging an incredible 34 percent of their total revenue from foreign investments,” read a statement by the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET).
The surge in overseas revenues represented a 17-year-high, according to the SET. The Thai corporate results were all the more impressive considering the adverse effects of the situation in Ukraine and lingering aftershocks from the pandemic that constrained the earnings of many global corporations.
Rising oil prices turbocharged an acceleration in foreign revenues of Thai energy and resource companies, with their earnings increasing by an average of 59 percent from the previous year.
The SET and the Market for Alternative Investments (MAI) are home to 810 companies. 287 of them are doing business in overseas markets. Their combined capitalization amounts to 66.5 percent of both markets.
The results represent the transformation of Thailand’s business landscape. At the turn of the century, few Thai companies had penetrated international markets beyond the immediate Southeast Asian region. Today, Thai corporations have been establishing subsidiaries or purchasing existing firms in Europe, the United States and other regions far from home.
Meanwhile, at home, all listed Thai companies collectively posted a 35.6 percent increase in revenue, hitting $540 billion in 2022.