Thai Industries With the Thinnest Equity Cushion in 2026
In short
Education companies fund just 5.87 percent of their assets with equity, the thinnest solvency cushion of any Thai industry section as of 17 July 2026. Arts and entertainment follows at 19.9 percent, then financial and insurance at 26.83 percent. Extraterritorial organizations post the thickest cushion of any section at 87.82 percent, though that group holds only 3 reporting companies. Among sections with real scale, mining and quarrying carries the thickest buffer at 65.95 percent. The gap between education and mining runs to 60.08 percentage points.
Which Thai industry runs on the thinnest equity cushion?
Education runs the thinnest equity cushion of any industry section in Thailand, with shareholder equity covering just 5.87 percent of the sector's assets as of 17 July 2026 (DBD, 2026). Arts and entertainment is next thinnest at 19.9 percent. Financial and insurance, a sector built to run on borrowed and deposited money, sits at 26.83 percent. Accommodation and food service follows at 28.26 percent. Extraterritorial organizations post the thickest cushion in the whole ranking at 87.82 percent, but that group covers only 3 companies with a filed statement, too small a sample to generalize from. Households registered as employers follow close behind at 82.3 percent from just 11 companies, another sample too small to generalize from. Among sections with real scale, mining and quarrying carries the thickest buffer at 65.95 percent. That leaves a 60.08 percentage point gap between the thinnest and the thickest sizeable sections.
Equity as a share of assets, by industry section
- Education6
- Arts and entertainment20
- Financial and insurance27
- Accommodation and food service28
- Other services37
- Real estate39
- Administrative and support40
- Public administration40
- Transportation and storage41
- Information and communication42
- Manufacturing46
- Water and waste48
- Professional, scientific and technical49
- Electricity and gas51
- Agriculture53
- Construction56
- Human health and social work62
- Wholesale and retail trade64
- Mining and quarrying66
- Households as employers82
- Extraterritorial organizations88
Figures in percent of assets funded by equity.
Sections run left to right from the thinnest cushion to the thickest. Education sits far below every other section with real scale.
Every industry section ranked by equity cushion
| Industry section | Equity ratio | Avg equity per company, THB | Avg assets per company, THB | Companies with data |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Education | 5.87% | 6,720,637 | 114,494,172 | 10,012 |
| Arts and entertainment | 19.9% | 4,637,093 | 23,307,330 | 13,177 |
| Financial and insurance | 26.83% | 486,383,073 | 1,812,807,182 | 25,720 |
| Accommodation and food service | 28.26% | 11,358,232 | 40,185,010 | 59,330 |
| Other services | 37.39% | 3,347,904 | 8,952,991 | 13,933 |
| Real estate | 39.11% | 32,977,407 | 84,315,452 | 108,572 |
| Administrative and support | 39.68% | 14,464,580 | 36,457,292 | 68,347 |
| Public administration | 40.18% | 6,290,437 | 15,656,319 | 17 |
| Transportation and storage | 41.34% | 23,802,234 | 57,577,652 | 51,510 |
| Information and communication | 42.43% | 35,800,016 | 84,373,895 | 38,810 |
| Manufacturing | 45.9% | 75,133,547 | 163,685,245 | 148,775 |
| Water and waste | 47.91% | 35,145,982 | 73,360,631 | 3,528 |
| Professional, scientific and technical | 49.33% | 13,871,177 | 28,117,153 | 99,165 |
| Electricity and gas | 51.43% | 201,641,055 | 392,033,078 | 6,211 |
| Agriculture | 53.08% | 38,116,074 | 71,805,600 | 12,067 |
| Construction | 56.14% | 12,997,758 | 23,150,779 | 162,154 |
| Human health and social work | 61.62% | 39,887,741 | 64,730,385 | 13,183 |
| Wholesale and retail trade | 63.94% | 36,043,108 | 56,374,513 | 424,646 |
| Mining and quarrying | 65.95% | 222,352,836 | 337,164,555 | 3,579 |
| Households as employers | 82.3% | 1,145,491 | 1,391,899 | 11 |
| Extraterritorial organizations | 87.82% | 7,905,002 | 9,001,492 | 3 |
Equity ratio, average equity, and average assets per reporting company, as of 17 Jul 2026.
Why the equity cushion matters
A thin equity cushion is not automatically a problem. It becomes one the moment revenue drops and a company still owes the same debt payments. Education providers build out campuses and equipment mostly on borrowed capital and thin retained earnings, so a slow enrollment year hits their solvency harder than it hits a mining company sitting on 65.95 percent equity. Independent Thai SMEs as a group carry similarly thin capitalization, near 21 percent, according to the OECD's 2025 review of Thailand's capital markets. That figure sits close to the middle of this ranking, not at either extreme. The 60.08 point gap between education and mining is not about which sector earns more. It is about which sector has more room to absorb a bad year before creditors start asking questions. Extraterritorial organizations and households as employers post the thickest ratios of all, but with 3 and 11 reporting companies respectively, those two rows describe a handful of small entities, not a market pattern.
Definitions
- Equity ratio
- Shareholder equity as a share of total assets. A 30 percent equity ratio means 30 satang of every baht of assets is funded by owners, with the rest funded by debt and other liabilities.
- Equity cushion
- A plain language name for the equity ratio, describing how much value could be lost before a company's liabilities exceed its assets.
- Return on equity, ROE
- Net profit as a share of shareholder equity, showing how much a company earns for each baht its owners have put in.
- Return on assets, ROA
- Net profit as a share of total assets, showing how much a company earns for each baht of assets it controls regardless of how those assets are funded.
- Companies with data
- Companies in a section that filed a financial statement with a usable asset and equity figure. Sections with very few such companies produce a less reliable average.
- Weighted equity ratio
- An economy wide equity ratio built by weighting each section's average equity and average assets by its number of reporting companies, rather than averaging the 21 section ratios as if each section were the same size.
Assumptions
- Equity ratio uses the average equity and average assets per reporting company in each section, not a sum across all companies, so a handful of very large or very small balance sheets can shift a section's figure.
- Public administration, households as employers, and extraterritorial organizations have very few reporting companies, 17, 11, and 3 respectively, so their ratios are noted but not treated as reliable as the larger sections.
- Only companies that filed a financial statement with both an asset and an equity figure contribute to a section's ratio.
- A section's equity ratio and 100 percent minus that ratio together describe how its assets split between equity and everything else on the liability side, mainly debt and payables.
Methodology
Equity ratio is each section's average total equity per reporting company divided by its average total assets per reporting company, drawn from the DBD registry as of 17 July 2026. Only companies with a filed financial statement carrying both an asset and an equity figure are included. Sections are the 21 lettered TSIC industry sections used across the DBD registry. Public administration, households as employers, and extraterritorial organizations are shown for completeness but flagged for their very small company counts, so those three rows are indicative rather than representative of a market.
How we verified this
- Recomputed Education's equity ratio directly from the raw table as 6,720,636.55 divided by 114,494,171.92, equal to 5.87 percent, matching the reported figure.
- Recomputed Households' equity ratio as 1,145,491.01 divided by 1,391,899.47, equal to 82.30 percent.
- Recomputed Extraterritorial organizations' equity ratio as 7,905,001.72 divided by 9,001,491.96, equal to 87.82 percent.
- Cross checked Education's ratio against the return on assets over return on equity identity, 0.71 divided by 12.10 equals 5.87 percent, matching the direct calculation.
- Sorted all 21 sections by equity ratio ascending and confirmed Education is the minimum and Extraterritorial organizations is the maximum, with Households as the highest section outside that tiny extraterritorial group.
- Computed a company weighted, economy wide equity ratio of 41.63 percent by summing each section's companies with data times its average equity, then dividing by the same weighted sum of assets, using all 1,262,750 companies with data across the 21 sections.
- Recomputed the gap between Education and Mining and quarrying, the thickest cushion among sections with more than 1,000 reporting companies, as 65.95 minus 5.87 equals 60.08 percentage points.
References
- Department of Business Development. (2026). Registered juristic persons and financial statement aggregates. Ministry of Commerce, Thailand. https://www.dbd.go.th/
- OECD. (2025). The corporate sector. In OECD capital market review of Thailand 2025. OECD Publishing. https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/oecd-capital-market-review-of-thailand-2025_0a975590-en/full-report/the-corporate-sector_008c96e5.html
Frequently asked questions
Which Thai industry has the thinnest equity cushion?
Education, where shareholder equity covers just 5.87 percent of the sector's assets as of 17 July 2026, the lowest equity ratio of any industry section.
Which section shows the thickest equity cushion of all, and why is it not a reliable signal?
Extraterritorial organizations post an 87.82 percent equity ratio, the highest of any section, but that figure comes from only 3 companies with a filed statement. Households registered as employers post the next highest ratio at 82.3 percent, drawn from just 11 companies, so neither figure reflects a stable market pattern.
Which large industry has the thickest equity cushion?
Mining and quarrying, at 65.95 percent, the highest equity ratio among sections with more than 1,000 reporting companies.
What does a thin equity cushion mean for a company?
It means more of the company's assets are funded by debt and other liabilities rather than by owners, leaving a smaller buffer to absorb losses before creditors are exposed.
Cite this page
Chatpong L. (2026). Thai Industries With the Thinnest Equity Cushion in 2026. Max Data Insights. https://maxdatathailand.com/insights/thai-industries-with-the-thinnest-equity-cushion-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.