Most Capital-Intensive Industries in Thailand by Assets (2026)
In short
Financial and insurance companies hold an average of 1.81 billion baht in assets each, the highest of any industry section in Thailand. That average is 21.5 times the mean of the other 20 sections, and more than four times the second ranked sector, electricity and gas, at 392.4 million baht. Manufacturing averages 163.8 million baht. Wholesale and retail trade, the largest sector by company count, averages just 56.4 million baht. Capital intensity varies far more across Thai industries than revenue or profit margin alone would suggest.
Which industry carries the most assets per company?
Financial and insurance stands alone at the top of Thailand's asset intensity ranking. The average company in this section carries 1.81 billion baht in total assets, drawn from the 25,697 financial and insurance companies that had filed a balance sheet as of 7 July 2026 (DBD, 2026). Electricity and gas ranks a distant second at 392.4 million baht per company. Mining and quarrying follows at 337.6 million baht. Manufacturing, one of the three largest sectors by revenue, averages only 163.8 million baht in assets per company. Below manufacturing the gap narrows quickly, and most sectors cluster between 20 million and 115 million baht per company. Wholesale and retail trade, the sector with the most companies in the country, averages just 56.4 million baht.
Average total assets per company by industry section
- Financial and insurance1,814
- Electricity and gas392
- Mining and quarrying338
- Manufacturing164
- Education115
- Information and communication84
- Real estate84
- Water and waste management73
- Agriculture, forestry and fishing72
- Human health and social work65
- Transportation and storage58
- Wholesale and retail trade56
Figures in million baht per company.
Financial and insurance towers over every other section. Electricity, mining and manufacturing form a distant second tier.
Industries ranked by average assets per company
| Industry section | Avg. assets per company | Registered companies |
|---|---|---|
| Financial and insurance | 1.81 billion baht | 35,567 |
| Electricity and gas | 392.4 million baht | 7,833 |
| Mining and quarrying | 337.6 million baht | 8,231 |
| Manufacturing | 163.8 million baht | 230,396 |
| Education | 114.6 million baht | 13,897 |
| Information and communication | 84.4 million baht | 52,537 |
| Real estate | 84.4 million baht | 149,608 |
| Water and waste management | 73.4 million baht | 4,818 |
| Agriculture, forestry and fishing | 71.9 million baht | 19,259 |
| Human health and social work | 64.8 million baht | 17,294 |
| Transportation and storage | 57.6 million baht | 85,273 |
| Wholesale and retail trade | 56.4 million baht | 715,976 |
| Accommodation and food service | 40.3 million baht | 83,598 |
| Administrative and support | 36.5 million baht | 100,691 |
| Professional, scientific and technical | 28.1 million baht | 138,962 |
| Arts, entertainment and recreation | 23.3 million baht | 18,486 |
| Construction | 23.2 million baht | 283,534 |
| Other service activities | 9.0 million baht | 20,455 |
Average total assets per company and registered companies by section, as of 7 Jul 2026. Sections with fewer than 1,000 registered companies are omitted for stability.
Why capital intensity is a different story from profit or scale
Revenue and profit rankings answer how much money moves through a sector and how much of it a company keeps. Asset intensity answers a different question: how much capital a company needs to sit in the sector at all. Wholesale and retail trade tops the country in company count and moves close to 39 trillion baht in revenue a year, yet the average company in that section holds only 56.4 million baht in assets, because most of that revenue passes through as goods bought and resold rather than owned outright. Financial and insurance runs the opposite way. The average company in that section reports about 133.1 million baht in yearly revenue, well below the country average, but backs it with 1.81 billion baht in assets, roughly 13.6 times its own revenue. Loans, investments and policy reserves sit on a bank or insurer's books long before they ever turn into revenue. That is why finance already leads Thailand on profit margin in a separate ranking on this site, and it now leads on capital intensity too. For a founder or an investor, the practical lesson is blunt: two sectors can look similar on revenue growth and still require wildly different amounts of capital to compete in.
Definitions
- Average total assets
- The sum of reported balance sheet assets for companies that filed a financial statement in a section, divided by the number of those filing companies, not the full registered count.
- Capital intensity
- How much asset value a company in a sector typically needs to hold to operate, as distinct from how much revenue it generates or how much profit it keeps.
- Industry section
- One of the 21 lettered top level categories in the TSIC industry classification used by the DBD registry, such as manufacturing or financial and insurance.
- Filed financial statement
- A balance sheet and income statement a registered company submits to the DBD for a given year, the source of the asset, revenue and profit figures used here.
Assumptions
- Averages are computed only over companies that filed a financial statement with a balance sheet in each section, not the full registered count, so sections with low filing rates carry more uncertainty.
- The 46.6 trillion baht sector total for financial and insurance is an estimate built by multiplying the average by the filing company count, not a directly reported aggregate.
- Sections with fewer than 1,000 registered companies were excluded from the ranking because small samples make the average unstable.
- Asset values reflect book value as reported by each company, not market value.
Methodology
Average total assets per company by industry section is drawn from the DBD registry's per section aggregate table, computed as of 7 July 2026, and covers the subset of registered companies in each section that had filed a balance sheet by that date. The number of companies with filed data differs from the total registered count shown in the table, for example 25,697 of the 35,567 registered financial and insurance companies had filed data. The 46.6 trillion baht estimated total for the financial and insurance section is calculated by multiplying the section average by its count of filing companies, and is presented as a rough estimate, not a directly reported total. Sections with fewer than 1,000 registered companies, namely public administration, households as employers and extraterritorial bodies, are omitted from the ranking because their small counts make the average unstable.
How we verified this
- Financial and insurance was confirmed as the maximum average total asset value across all 21 industry sections at 1,814,432,192 baht, roughly 1.81 billion baht.
- The unweighted mean of the other 20 sections' average total asset figures was computed at 84,389,610 baht, and 1,814,432,192 divided by 84,389,610 equals 21.5, confirming the more than 20 times claim in the headline.
- Of the 20 non financial sections, 16 have an average total asset below 90,721,610 baht, one twentieth of the financial and insurance figure, meaning financial and insurance beats most other sectors by more than 20 times.
- The ratio of financial and insurance average assets to average revenue was recomputed as 1,814,432,192 divided by 133,116,506, equal to 13.6, matching the figure stated in the closing section.
- Entity counts across all 21 sections were summed to 1,986,489, matching the registry's total count of companies with a classified industry section, confirming no section was double counted or omitted.
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). Summary statement of assets and liabilities, financial institutions. https://www.bot.or.th/en/statistics/financial-institutions/summary-statement-of-assets-and-liabilities.html
Frequently asked questions
Which Thai industry has the most assets per company?
Financial and insurance, with an average of 1.81 billion baht in total assets per company, as of 7 July 2026.
How much more capital intensive is finance than other sectors?
Financial and insurance averages 21.5 times the mean of the other 20 industry sections, and more than four times the second ranked sector, electricity and gas.
Is capital intensity the same as profitability?
No. Capital intensity measures assets per company, while profitability measures net profit as a share of revenue. Financial and insurance ranks high on both, but the two measures answer different questions and a sector can score high on one and low on the other.
Why does financial and insurance need so many assets?
Banks and insurers hold loans, investments and policy reserves on their books as assets, so their balance sheets grow far larger relative to revenue than a trading or services company.
Cite this page
Chatpong L. (2026). Most Capital-Intensive Industries in Thailand by Assets (2026). Max Data Insights. https://maxdatathailand.com/insights/most-capital-intensive-industries-in-thailand-2026
Data & corrections
Download the data (CSV)Spot something off, or want to ask about the data? Email insights@maxsolutions.co.th. We publish corrections.
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.