Finance vs Healthcare Profitability in Thailand 2026
In short
Financial and insurance companies post a 25.4 percent net margin, the highest of any Thai industry section, against 11.1 percent for human health and social work. Switch to return on assets and the ranking flips. Healthcare earns 6.7 percent on its assets, the best of Thailand's 21 sections, while finance manages just 1.8 percent, a figure below the whole economy's average. The gap comes down to balance sheet size. Finance carries far more assets for every baht of profit it books, as of 17 Jul 2026.
Which is more profitable, finance or healthcare?
The answer depends entirely on which ruler is used. Financial and insurance companies post a net margin of 25.4 percent, the highest of Thailand's 21 industry sections (DBD, 2026). Human health and social work trails far behind on that measure, at 11.1 percent, which is good for seventh place. Switch the yardstick to return on assets and the ranking turns upside down. Human health earns 6.7 percent on every baht of assets it holds, the best return of any sector in the country. Financial and insurance returns just 1.8 percent on its assets, a figure that puts it 14th out of 21 sections and below the whole economy's average return on assets of 2.55 percent. Two sectors, two different crowns, and neither one wins both.
Net margin versus return on assets
- Finance net margin25
- Healthcare net margin11
- Healthcare return on assets7
- Finance return on assets2
Figures in percent.
Finance dominates on margin. Healthcare dominates on return on assets. The two measures tell opposite stories about the same two sectors.
Finance and healthcare side by side
| Metric | Financial and insurance | Human health and social work |
|---|---|---|
| Net profit margin | 25.4% | 11.1% |
| Return on assets | 1.8% | 6.7% |
| Return on equity | 6.7% | 10.9% |
| Registered companies with filings | 35,567 | 17,294 |
| Revenue per company, million baht | 92.9 | 29.9 |
| Profit per company, million baht | 23.6 | 3.3 |
| Implied assets per company, million baht | 1,309.6 | 49.3 |
| Revenue as a share of implied assets | 7.1% | 60.7% |
Financial and insurance compared with human health and social work, as of 17 Jul 2026.
Why the ranking flips
Net margin measures how much profit survives out of every baht of revenue. Return on assets measures how hard the balance sheet works to produce that profit, and those are different questions with different winners. Financial and insurance companies keep 25.4 satang of every revenue baht as profit, well clear of every other sector, but they do it while sitting on an implied asset base of roughly 1.31 billion baht per company, built from loans, premium reserves and investment holdings. Human health companies carry a fraction of that, about 49.3 million baht of implied assets per company, and turn those assets over into revenue about 8.5 times faster than finance does. That is the whole paradox in one line. A hospital group's assets are mostly buildings, equipment and receivables that get put to work generating revenue every year. A bank or insurer's assets are mostly other people's money, held on the balance sheet and lent or invested rather than spent, so the same profit gets divided by a much bigger number. The pattern shows up outside the registry too. The Bank of Thailand's own banking sector brief put the commercial banking system's return on assets at 1.08 percent in the third quarter of 2025, still far below the double digit margins banks report, and consistent with a sector whose reported margins look excellent while its returns on its own balance sheet look ordinary (Bank of Thailand, 2025). For an investor, the honest answer is to ask both questions. Margin says finance is unmatched. Return on assets says healthcare is the sharper operator with the money it actually holds.
Definitions
- Net margin
- Net profit as a share of revenue. A margin of 25 percent means 25 satang of profit survive from every baht of revenue booked.
- Return on assets
- Net profit as a share of total assets. It measures how much profit a sector generates for every baht it holds on its balance sheet, regardless of how much revenue it books.
- Return on equity
- Net profit as a share of shareholder equity, the owners' stake after subtracting liabilities from assets.
- Implied assets
- An estimate of total sector assets calculated by dividing total net profit by the published return on assets, used here because the registry publishes the ratio rather than the raw balance sheet total at the section level.
- Asset turnover
- Revenue divided by assets, showing how many times a sector effectively converts its balance sheet into revenue in a year.
- TSIC section
- One of 21 lettered top level categories in Thailand's industrial classification system, such as K for financial and insurance activities or Q for human health and social work.
Assumptions
- Only companies that filed a financial statement in the registry contribute to each sector's margin, return on assets and return on equity.
- Implied assets and implied equity per sector are estimates derived from published net profit and ratio figures, not directly reported balance sheet totals, so they carry the rounding of the underlying ratios.
- Financial and insurance revenue recognition, built around interest and premium income, is not directly comparable with how a hospital or clinic books service revenue, which affects the margin figure more than the return on assets figure.
- Per company averages divide sector totals by the count of filing companies and do not describe any single company, which can range from a small clinic to a large hospital group or bank.
Methodology
Net margin, return on assets and return on equity are aggregate figures for each TSIC industry section, computed as total sector net profit divided by total sector revenue, total assets and total equity respectively, drawn from companies that filed a financial statement in the DBD registry as of 17 July 2026. Implied assets and implied equity per sector are derived by dividing total net profit by the reported return on assets and return on equity, since the registry publishes the ratios rather than raw balance sheet totals at the section level. Revenue and profit per company are total sector revenue or profit divided by the count of filing companies in that section. Sector rankings out of 21 cover all lettered TSIC sections with published margin and return figures.
How we verified this
- Net margin recomputed as net profit divided by revenue: finance 839,229,845,430.60 divided by 3,303,794,936,231.34 equals 25.40 percent, and healthcare 57,264,370,839.62 divided by 517,489,609,870.35 equals 11.07 percent, both matching the queried net_margin field.
- All 21 TSIC sections were sorted by net_margin descending: financial and insurance ranked first at 25.40 percent and human health ranked seventh at 11.07 percent.
- The same 21 sections were sorted by roa descending: human health ranked first at 6.71 percent and financial and insurance ranked 14th at 1.80 percent, below the national average roa of 2.55 percent from market_national_insight.
- Implied assets per company computed as total net profit divided by roa, then divided by entity count: finance equals 839,229,845,430.60 divided by 0.0180176 divided by 35,567, or about 1,309.6 million baht, and healthcare equals 57,264,370,839.62 divided by 0.0671214 divided by 17,294, or about 49.3 million baht.
- Asset turnover computed as total revenue divided by the same implied assets figure: finance equals about 7.1 percent and healthcare equals about 60.7 percent, and 60.7 divided by 7.1 confirms healthcare turns its assets into revenue roughly 8.5 times faster than finance.
- The ratio of healthcare roa to finance roa, 6.71 divided by 1.80, equals 3.73, and the ratio of finance margin to healthcare margin, 25.40 divided by 11.07, equals 2.30, confirming the two sectors trade places by a similar order of magnitude on each measure.
- The Bank of Thailand's banking sector quarterly brief for the third quarter of 2025 was read directly, confirming a commercial banking system return on assets of 1.08 percent for that quarter, corrected from a draft that had misstated the figure as below 1 percent in the fourth quarter.
References
- Department of Business Development. (2026). Registered juristic persons and financial statement aggregates. Ministry of Commerce, Thailand. https://www.dbd.go.th/
- Bank of Thailand. (2025). Banking sector quarterly brief, Q3 2025. https://www.bot.or.th/content/dam/bot/documents/en/news-and-media/news/2025/news-20251118.pdf
Frequently asked questions
Is finance or healthcare more profitable in Thailand?
It depends on the measure. Finance has the higher net margin at 25.4 percent against healthcare's 11.1 percent, but healthcare has the higher return on assets at 6.7 percent against finance's 1.8 percent.
Why does finance have such a high margin but a low return on assets?
Finance keeps a large share of each revenue baht as profit, but it holds a very large balance sheet of loans, premium reserves and investments relative to that profit, so the same profit divided by a much bigger asset base produces a low return on assets.
How much bigger are finance's assets compared to healthcare's, per company?
The registry implies about 1,309.6 million baht of assets per finance company against about 49.3 million baht per healthcare company, roughly 27 times larger.
Which sector uses its assets more efficiently?
Healthcare does. Its revenue equals about 60.7 percent of its implied assets each year, compared with about 7.1 percent for finance, so healthcare turns its balance sheet into revenue roughly 8.5 times faster.
Cite this page
Chatpong L. (2026). Finance vs Healthcare Profitability in Thailand 2026. Max Data Insights. https://maxdatathailand.com/insights/financial-sector-vs-healthcare-profitability-paradox-2026
Data & corrections
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Written by
Chatpong L.Founder, Max Data, Max Solutions Co., Ltd.
Chatpong L. leads Max Data, a company-intelligence platform built on Thailand's official business registry. He writes about the structure of the Thai economy using primary registry data. His work covers company formation, industry concentration, and regional business activity.
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This page reports company-level and aggregate statistics only. It names no individuals and makes no claims about any person. Figures are provided for information and may be revised as source data updates.