Thailand’s stock market is facing increasing headwinds in 2026, as more local companies choose to list abroad, seeking friendlier markets and more promising fundraising prospects. The trend underscores persistent issues within the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), where sluggish economic growth, regulatory hurdles, fraud, lack of confidence, and social resistance impede market expansion.
What we are witnessing is not a temporary market lull; it is a structural, regional migration. Thai listed conglomerates are increasingly choosing to bypass the SET entirely for their high-profile spin-offs, subsidiaries, or primary listings. Instead, they are opting for regional powerhouses like Singapore (SGX), Hong Kong (HKEX), and rapidly growing frontier hubs like Vietnam.
Take Berli Jucker (BJC), for instance. Rather than orchestrating an IPO for its massive hypermarket arm, Big C, on the local bourse, BJC has actively weighed listing the retail giant directly in Vietnam—the very market driving its modern growth engine.
Meanwhile, William Heinecke’s Minor International (MINT) is bypassing domestic property fund structures to set up its new Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) on the Singapore Exchange (SGX). Its subsidiary, Minor Food, initially eyed the prestigious Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) for a spin-off before pivoting its strategy toward Singapore’s highly sophisticated hospitality and real estate ecosystem.
This trend isn’t entirely new, but it is accelerating. We’ve already seen General Beverage, the producer of the globally popular IF Coconut Water, choose Hong Kong for its capital debut. And most famously, Thai Beverage (ThaiBev) permanently anchored itself to the SGX years ago, a direct consequence of intense domestic regulatory and social-conservative resistance against listing alcohol-producing enterprises on the Thai exchange.
Such moves come amid sharp contrast with fundraising booms across regional stock exchanges.
So far in 2026, only one new IPO has debuted on the SET: Unique Plastic Industry Public Company Limited (SET: UNIX), which raised a modest 340 million baht.
Other Asian markets, however, are seeing an IPO surge. Singapore Exchange (SGX) welcomed eight new listings already this year, raising a combined S$1.23 billion (approx. 31.3 billion baht), plus another US$37.07 million raised in a gold ETF, pushing total new fundraising to over 32 billion baht.
Hong Kong’s HKEX saw 62 new listings in the first five months alone, with another 500 firms in the IPO pipeline. Goldman Sachs projects total funds raised via HK listings could hit US$60 billion (1.95 trillion baht) this year—nearly double last year’s US$36 billion.
Across the Pacific, NYSE and Nasdaq in the United States hosted 73 traditional IPOs so far in 2026, with total fundraising reaching US$110.9 billion (3.61 trillion baht)—a staggering 622% growth year-on-year, even as the number of actual IPOs declined by 21.5%. Tech giants such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Stripe are expected to further boost totals, with Morgan Stanley forecasting year-end US IPO proceeds to climb as high as US$200 billion (6.5 trillion baht).
While billions of dollars flow seamlessly through Singapore, Hong Kong, and New York, Thailand’s primary market is moving at a snail’s pace. A key driver behind this underperformance is highlighted in a number of research, which points out that the domestic economy is fundamentally caught in a middle-income trap, heavily weighted down by old-economy sectors (traditional manufacturing, low-margin retail, and tourism) while lacking the high-growth, modern tech ecosystems that global asset managers crave.
SET’s Response
Despite these obstacles, the SET is not passively observing. Under the leadership of its 14th President, Asadej Kongsiri, the SET is rolling out aggressive structural reforms to inject liquidity and vitalize listed firms, notably the “Thailand Individual Savings Account (TISA)” program and “Jump+.”
- TISA: Modeled after the highly successful ISA programs in the UK and Japan, TISA is designed to be a permanent, tax-incentivized savings vehicle. Unlike previous temporary tax-shield funds, TISA aims to systematically convert everyday Thai household savings into consistent, long-term equity investments, with analysts predicting it could inject a steady, predictable flow of billions of baht into local equities annually.
- Jump+: This initiative is aimed squarely at the “old economy” problem. Over 140 mid-to-large Thai listed companies have entered the program, which utilizes Capital Market Development Fund (CMDF) resources and AI-driven business transformations to help traditional firms accelerate their growth trajectories and transition into higher-value business models.
Meanwhile, Asadej is actively promoting Thailand’s capital market through ongoing international roadshows, directly engaging with Thai multinational firms and regional investors to restore confidence and encourage dual or home listings on SET.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is also reviewing regulations to adapt to rapid market changes and mitigate systemic risks. The regulator is now moving to streamline listing steps to match international standards, but it is pairing this efficiency with an aggressive stance on enforcement.
The scar of catastrophic financial scandals like STARK Corporation (accounting fraud), MORE (market manipulation), and JKN Global Group (liquidity and bond defaults) heavily bruised the market’s reputation. The SEC’s current mandate has shifted sharply from passive compliance checking to proactive forensic auditing, focusing intensely on stocks displaying volatile trading patterns or high debt-to-equity anomalies to prevent market-harming events before they detonate.
Takeaway
Thailand’s capital market is at a critical turning point. The exodus of local heavyweights to regional bourses is a loud warning bell that the exchange cannot survive solely on the prestige of its past liquidity.
TISA, Jump+, and tighter SEC enforcement are excellent, necessary tools to patch the leaks in the ship. However, until Thailand addresses its broader macroeconomic hurdles—upgrading its labor force, embracing modern digital services, and cutting down the socio-political red tape that pushes massive enterprises like ThaiBev out of the country—the SET will continue to play defense against its more agile, global neighbors.
The regulators have laid out the blueprint for a comeback. Now, the market waits to see if it’s enough to convince Thai billionaires that home is still the best place to grow.
