Loss-Making Thai Companies Hold Just 18% of Corporate Debt in 2026
In short
Loss-making Thai companies hold just 18.4 percent of the 63.05 trillion baht in total liabilities reported in this dataset, as of 17 July 2026. That is despite making up 34.7 percent of the 652,943 companies with both a usable net margin and a usable liabilities figure. Profitable companies average 120.6 million baht in liabilities each, more than double the 51.3 million baht average at loss-making companies. Debt inside the loss-making group is itself concentrated, since the largest 2,265 companies, just one percent of that group, hold 70.1 percent of all the liabilities loss-making companies carry.
How much of Thailand's corporate debt sits with companies losing money?
Start with the 652,943 Thai companies that report both a net margin and a total liabilities figure. Of those, 226,476 are currently losing money, a net margin below zero. That group is 34.7 percent of the population. Yet it carries only 18.4 percent of the 63.05 trillion baht in combined liabilities across the same group. Profitable companies hold the other 81.6 percent, or 51.44 trillion baht. The average profitable company in this dataset owes 120.6 million baht. The average loss-making company owes 51.3 million baht, less than half as much. Scale, not profitability alone, decides who is carrying Thailand's corporate debt.
Total liabilities split by profitability
- Loss-making companies18.4%18
- Profitable companies81.6%82
Profitable companies control more than four out of every five baht of liabilities in the dataset.
Companies and liabilities by profitability
| Group | Companies | Share of companies | Total liabilities (trillion baht) | Share of liabilities | Avg liabilities per company (million baht) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loss-making, net margin below zero | 226,476 | 34.7% | 11.61 | 18.4% | 51.3 |
| Profitable, net margin zero or above | 426,467 | 65.3% | 51.44 | 81.6% | 120.6 |
| All companies with usable data | 652,943 | 100.0% | 63.05 | 100.0% | 96.6 |
Net margin below zero counts as loss-making, as of 17 Jul 2026.
Debt concentration inside the loss-making group
| Slice of loss-making companies | Companies | Share of loss-making liabilities |
|---|---|---|
| Top 1 percent | 2,265 | 70.1% |
| Top 5 percent | 11,324 | 87.9% |
| Top 10 percent | 22,648 | 93.6% |
| All loss-making companies | 226,476 | 100.0% |
Loss-making companies ranked by total liabilities, largest first.
Why this matters
A common fear about a slowing economy is that struggling companies are quietly piling up debt across the system. This data points the other way. Loss-making companies carry less debt per firm than profitable ones do, not more, so the raw share of debt sitting with unprofitable filers is smaller than their share of the population would suggest. The real concentration risk sits one layer deeper, inside the loss-making group itself. Just 2,265 companies, one percent of all loss-makers, account for 70.1 percent of the debt that loss-making companies carry between them. For a lender or a policymaker watching for stress, the story is not thousands of small companies losing money each year. It is a short list of large, heavily indebted names, and that list is what deserves the closest watch. Bank of Thailand data for the second quarter of 2026 shows a similar split by scale, with the SME non performing loan ratio at 9.16 percent against 2.85 percent for the banking system as a whole (Bank of Thailand, as cited in Nation Thailand, 2026), which fits the same pattern of risk concentrating in a narrower slice of borrowers rather than spreading evenly.
Definitions
- Net margin
- Net profit as a share of revenue for a single company. A net margin below zero means the company reported a net loss rather than a net profit.
- Loss-making company
- A company whose most recently filed statement shows a net margin below zero.
- Total liabilities
- The sum of everything a company owes, including bank borrowing, trade payables and other obligations, as reported on its filed balance sheet.
- Concentration
- How unevenly a total, such as debt, is spread across the companies that make it up, measured here by the share held by the largest slice of a group.
Assumptions
- Only companies with both a usable net margin and a usable total liabilities figure are included, so companies with an incomplete filed statement are left out of both the numerator and the denominator.
- A company's most recent filed statement can reflect an earlier fiscal year, so its loss-making status may lag its current, unfiled performance.
- Total liabilities cover all debt types combined rather than bank borrowing alone, so the figures are broader than a narrow bank loan measure.
Methodology
Net margin and total liabilities are taken from the most recent filed financial statement of each Thai juristic person in the Department of Business Development registry, as of 17 July 2026, the latest refresh available in the registry's aggregate tables. A company counts as loss-making when its reported net margin is below zero and as profitable when its net margin is zero or above. Only the 652,943 companies with both a usable net margin and a usable total liabilities figure are included, since a share of debt cannot be computed without both. Companies that have not filed a recent statement, or whose statement lacks a usable liabilities figure, are excluded and their debt is not represented in these totals.
How we verified this
- 226,476 loss-making companies plus 426,467 profitable companies sum to the 652,943 population, matching the query total.
- Loss-making share of companies recomputed as 226,476 divided by 652,943 equals 34.69 percent, rounded to 34.7 percent.
- Total liabilities of loss-making companies, 11,611,127,422,407.58 baht, plus profitable companies, 51,436,145,855,118.82 baht, sum to 63,047,273,277,526.40 baht, matching the total liabilities query exactly.
- Loss-making share of liabilities recomputed as 11,611,127,422,407.58 divided by 63,047,273,277,526.40 equals 18.42 percent, rounded to 18.4 percent.
- Average liabilities per company recomputed by dividing each group's total liabilities by its company count, giving 51,268,688 baht for loss-making firms and 120,609,909 baht for profitable firms, a ratio of 2.35 times.
- Top 1 percent of loss-making companies by liabilities, 2,265 firms, holds 8,138,452,698,071.96 of 11,611,127,422,407.58 total loss-making liabilities, recomputed as 70.09 percent, rounded to 70.1 percent.
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, as cited in Nation Thailand. (2026). Bank of Thailand sets out three steps to address SME credit crisis. https://www.nationthailand.com/business/banking-finance/40070829
Frequently asked questions
What share of Thailand's corporate debt is held by loss-making companies?
Companies with a net margin below zero hold 18.4 percent of the 63.05 trillion baht in total liabilities reported across the dataset, as of 17 July 2026.
Are loss-making companies over represented in Thailand's corporate debt?
No. Loss-making companies are 34.7 percent of the filer population with usable data but hold only 18.4 percent of total liabilities, so on average they carry less debt per company than profitable firms do.
How concentrated is debt within the loss-making group itself?
Highly concentrated. The largest 1 percent of loss-making companies by liabilities, 2,265 firms, hold 70.1 percent of all the debt reported by loss-making companies.
Cite this page
Chatpong L. (2026). Loss-Making Thai Companies Hold Just 18% of Corporate Debt in 2026. Max Data Insights. https://maxdatathailand.com/insights/loss-making-thai-companies-share-of-corporate-debt-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.