Top 1% of Thai Companies Hold 86.9% of Corporate Debt 2026
In short
Thailand's top 1 percent of companies by total liabilities carry 86.9 percent of the country's corporate debt, as of 17 July 2026. That top slice is 12,379 companies out of 1,237,910 with a reported liabilities figure. Together they hold 65.8 trillion baht of the 75.7 trillion baht on record. A company needs at least 374.2 million baht in liabilities just to enter that group. The bottom half of the same population, more than 618,000 companies, carries just 0.02 percent of the total.
How much of Thailand's corporate debt sits with the top 1 percent?
The top 1 percent of Thai companies, ranked by total liabilities, carries 86.9 percent of the country's corporate debt (DBD, 2026). The group is 12,379 companies out of 1,237,910 with a reported liabilities value. To reach that top slice a company needed at least 374.2 million baht in total liabilities. Once inside, the average member carries 5.3 billion baht in liabilities, against 8.1 million baht for the remaining 99 percent, a gap of about 658 times. Widen the lens and the concentration only deepens. The top tenth of one percent, just 1,238 companies, already accounts for 71.4 percent of all corporate debt on its own.
Cumulative share of corporate debt by top slice of companies
- Top 0.1%71
- Top 1%87
- Top 5%95
- Top 10%98
- Top 25%100
- Top 50%100
Figures in percent of national corporate debt.
Each bar is cumulative from the top. The top 1 percent bar includes the top 0.1 percent inside it, and so on down the ranking.
Corporate debt concentration by slice of companies
| Slice of companies | Number of companies | Share of national corporate debt |
|---|---|---|
| Top 0.1% | 1,238 | 71.4% |
| Top 1% | 12,379 | 86.9% |
| Top 5% | 61,896 | 95.3% |
| Top 10% | 123,791 | 97.8% |
| Top 25% | 309,478 | 99.6% |
| Top 50% | 618,955 | 100.0% |
| Bottom 50% | 618,955 | 0.02% |
Companies ranked by total liabilities, from highest to lowest, among the 1,237,910 that reported a figure. As of 17 Jul 2026.
Why this concentration matters
A national debt total tells a reader almost nothing about who actually owes the money, and the corporate registry shows why. The 12,379 companies in the top 1 percent are just six tenths of one percent of Thailand's 1,989,709 registered companies, yet they carry more debt than the other 99.4 percent combined. Total liabilities cover trade payables and operating obligations alongside loans, so this is a picture of balance sheet scale, not only bank credit, and the largest names here include major infrastructure, energy and financial groups whose liabilities move with the size of their operations. Even so, a distribution this narrow matters for anyone pricing risk. A bank stress test built on the average company would miss the point entirely, since the average is set by a small cluster of very large borrowers, not by the typical firm. Trade creditors, sector regulators and lenders assessing systemic exposure all need the shape of this curve, because a shock to a few thousand companies at the top touches a share of the corporate debt stock that a shock to the other 1.2 million companies never could. The Bank of Thailand has flagged a related pattern among highly indebted large corporations, whose debt to equity ratio has kept climbing even as most listed firms hold theirs steady, a reminder that borrowing in Thailand's corporate sector is not spread evenly (Bank of Thailand, 2024).
Definitions
- Total liabilities
- Everything a company owes, including bank loans, bonds, trade payables and other operating obligations, as reported on its balance sheet.
- Corporate debt
- Used in this analysis as shorthand for total liabilities, a broader measure than interest bearing loans alone.
- Concentration
- The degree to which a total, here aggregate corporate debt, sits with a small share of the underlying population rather than being spread evenly across it.
- Top 1 percent cutoff
- The total liabilities value at which the highest ranked one percent of companies begins. Any company at or above this value is inside the top 1 percent.
- Cumulative share
- The share of the total held by a slice and every slice ranked above it, so the top 5 percent bar already includes the top 1 percent and top 0.1 percent inside it.
Assumptions
- Only companies with a reported total liabilities figure are included in the ranked population, 1,237,910 out of 1,989,709 registered companies.
- Total liabilities is used as the measure of corporate debt, which includes trade payables and other operating obligations alongside loans and borrowings, not only financial debt.
- A small number of companies, 14, report negative total liabilities, most likely from accounting adjustments, and they remain in the ranked population at the bottom rather than being excluded.
- Figures are a single snapshot as of 17 July 2026 and will shift as later financial statements are filed.
Methodology
Total liabilities per company was pulled from the DBD registry's filed financial statements as of 17 July 2026. A company is included in the ranked population if it reports a total liabilities figure, positive, negative or zero, which covers 1,237,910 of Thailand's 1,989,709 registered companies. A small number of companies, 14, report negative total liabilities, most likely from accounting adjustments, and they sit at the bottom of the ranking rather than being dropped. Companies were ranked from highest to lowest total liabilities, and each slice size was set at the stated percentage of the ranked population, rounded to the nearest whole company. Shares are each slice's summed total liabilities divided by the summed total liabilities of the full ranked population. Total liabilities, sometimes called corporate debt in this analysis, is a balance sheet measure and includes operating liabilities such as trade payables, not only interest bearing loans.
How we verified this
- Top 1% share recomputed directly as 65,819,914,614,873.43 baht of total liabilities held by the top 12,379 companies divided by 75,719,885,025,866.52 baht of total liabilities across all 1,237,910 companies with a reported figure, equal to 86.9 percent.
- Top 1% headcount recomputed as 1 percent of 1,237,910 companies with a reported liabilities figure, 12,379.1, rounded to the whole company count of 12,379 used in the ranking.
- Bottom 50% share recomputed as the total liabilities of the 618,955 lowest ranked companies, 15,278,337,042.51 baht, divided by the same 75,719,885,025,866.52 baht total, equal to 0.02 percent, and cross checked as the top 50% sum of 75,704,606,688,824.01 baht plus the bottom 50% sum equal to the grand total.
- The 658 times gap recomputed as the top 1% average liabilities of 5,317,062,333 baht divided by the remaining 99% average of 8,078,107 baht, equal to 658.2.
- The six tenths of one percent figure recomputed as 12,379 companies divided by 1,989,709 total registered companies, equal to 0.622 percent.
- The top 0.1% figure recomputed as 54,074,424,017,199.33 baht held by the top 1,238 companies divided by 75,719,885,025,866.52 baht, equal to 71.4 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. (2024). Financial stability report 2024. https://www.bot.or.th/content/dam/bot/documents/en/research-and-publications/reports/financial-stability-report/FSR2024e.pdf
Frequently asked questions
What share of Thailand's corporate debt comes from the top 1 percent of companies?
The top 1 percent of companies by total liabilities, 12,379 firms, carry 86.9 percent of all corporate debt on record, as of 17 July 2026.
How many companies make up that top 1 percent?
12,379 companies, drawn from a base of 1,237,910 companies nationwide that reported a total liabilities figure.
How much debt does the bottom half of companies carry?
Just 0.02 percent of the national total, spread across 618,955 companies.
How much debt does a company need to reach the top 1 percent?
At least 374.2 million baht in total liabilities, based on the ranked cutoff among companies with a reported figure.
Cite this page
Chatpong L. (2026). Top 1% of Thai Companies Hold 86.9% of Corporate Debt 2026. Max Data Insights. https://maxdatathailand.com/insights/top-1-percent-of-thai-companies-hold-most-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.