SET-listed digital finance firm Group Lease Public Company Limited (GL) has posted a record-high 222.17 million baht net profit from its operations in Q1 2016, which represents a massive 101.53% increase from the same period last year. The latest results mark the sixth consecutive quarterly record-high profits since the last quarter of 2014.

According to GL’s Executive Board chairman Tatsuya Konoshita, the results for the January-March 2016 period mark significant improvement from all of the GL Group’s operations, including those in Thailand and all other overseas subsidiaries. These improvements were bolstered by better assets quality, lower provisions for bad and doubtful debts and reduced losses from the disposal of foreclosed assets, he said.

Notable among the highlights of the Q1/2016 results were major improvements in GL’s home-based operations in Thailand, a sharp increase in “other incomes” derived from new financing for SME dealers in Cambodia that are booked by GL Holdings (GLH, a wholly-owned subsidiary in Singapore), plus the new business in Laos which for the first time started to turn profitable.

“I want to give credit to the management of our Thailand operations which has done a very good job,” commented Mr. Tatsuya. A significant improvement in assets quality for the Thailand portfolio has resulted in the gradual reduction of non-performing loans (NPLs) from more than 10% at the start of last year to just 6.5% now. “Our Thai portfolio is clean,” he stated.

In an official filing with the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), the company said consolidated hire-purchase interest income for this period amounted to 484.70 million baht, a small increase of only 1.47 million baht from the same period last year. The aggregate amount took into account substantial increases of 80.77 million baht and 16.04 million baht from the subsidiaries in Cambodia and Laos respectively. But the increases were partially offset by a reduction in interest incomes from the parent company and the Thai subsidiary of 50.33 million baht and 45.01 million baht respectively, which reflect a continuous consolidation of the Thailand operations.

The filing also noted a significant increase of 93.42% in “other incomes” from 89.70 million baht to 173.49 million baht over the same period. A sizable portion of these incomes was derived from new financing to SME dealers in Cambodia that supply products such as motorcycles, farm machineries, solar panels and electrical appliances to GL’s hire-purchase clients.

The filing also attributed the improved financial results in Q1 to lower provisions for bad and doubtful debts due to better assets quality, stricter loans approval and more effective collections in the Thailand operations while “the business in Cambodia and Laos are growing continuously with low percentage of overdues”.

Finally, the losses from the re-sale of repossessed vehicles decreased substantially by 46.54% from 107.10 million baht in the first quarter in 2015 to just 57.25 million baht in this period.

“This has been another very good quarter for GL, reflecting improvement in all aspects of our operations both in Thailand and overseas,” Mr. Tatsuya concluded.