Solartron Public Company Limited

Two brokers hold a positive view on power-plant stocks after the Energy Minister prepares to expand the buyback quota for electricity from public solar rooftops to 10,000 MW from 500 MW previously, under a feed-in tariff of 2.2 baht per unit, along with an extension of the power purchase agreement buyback term to 20 years from 10 years. Krungsri Securities said it sees positive sentiment, especially for GUNKUL, even though the solar rooftop business accounts for only about 6-7% of total revenue, but it still gets a boost from the policy of installing solar rooftops with tax deductions of up to 200,000 baht per household and installation subsidies of 30,000 baht per household from the 400-billion-baht loan emergency decree. It also recommends buying GULF with a 2027 target price of 77 baht and GPSC with a 2027 target price of 61 baht as top picks on the data center investment theme. Asia Plus Securities is bullish on the renewable energy group, seeing the expansion of the framework to 10,000 MW as reflecting a significant upgrade of the public solar market, and the extension of the purchase term from 10 years to 20 years as increasing the attractiveness and incentive for household investment. This is therefore a positive factor for solar EPC operators and related equipment distributors such as GUNKUL, SOLAR, SPCG and SSP. Its research team picks GUNKUL as top pick with a target price of 6.4 baht, and sees the medium- to long-term investment theme extending from the solar group to smart grid and battery energy storage systems, where BGRIM and GPSC have strengths in smart grid and BESS, while GULF has both solar rooftop and solar-plus-BESS businesses.

The policy injecting 200 billion baht under the emergency loan decree to drive clean energy and electric transport systems is positively impacting nine Thai stocks in the solar rooftop and electric vehicle ecosystem sectors. The solar rooftop group that will benefit fully includes GUNKUL from its integrated business covering equipment sales and installation contracting, SOLAR as a panel manufacturer and installation service provider, retail building materials and IT groups such as HMPRO, DOHOME, GLOBAL, and COM7 as distribution channels for ready-made household solar kits, and KTC from low-interest loan measures and installment payments for solar rooftop installation that stimulate card spending. In the electric vehicle ecosystem group, NEX benefits the most in the electric bus and truck segment, EA will ease liquidity concerns and unlock assets from its battery manufacturing and EV assembly plants, while GPSC and GULF benefit from investments in nationwide charging station infrastructure. Analysts recommend a strategy of accumulating on dips or speculating on policy momentum, while cautioning that EV and solar cell stocks often react quickly to policy news. Investors should scale in and avoid chasing prices during sharp short-term rallies.