Corporate giants upbeat on Q3 results

A factory of Hoa Sen Group in Nghe An province. (Source: hoasengroup.vn)

Hanoi (VNA) – Thirteen of the 30 largest companies on the HCM Stock Exchange have reported third-quarter earnings, of which nine firms saw increases in revenues and profits while four witnessed their businesses sag.

Steelmakers showed the strongest growth in the last three months of this year. The two biggest listed steelmaking firms, Hoa Phat Group (HPG) and Hoa Sen Group (HSG), both posted striking results.

Hoa Sen Group (HSG) earned 9.3 trillion VND (417 million USD) in revenues and 764 billion VND in net profits in the third quarter, up 23 percent in revenues and 200 percent in profits over the same period of last year.

Similarly. Hoa Phat Group (HPG) posted 8.3 trillion VND in total sales and 1.6 trillion VND in net profits. As of September's end, the company made 4.7 trillion VND in profits, up 60 percent year-on-year and surpassing its yearly target by 45 percent.

"This is the best nine-month business result in our history," the steelmaker said.

Financial firms and banks were also upbeat following their positive earnings in the first nine months of this year.

Saigon Securities Inc (SSI), the largest brokerage firm on both HCM City and Hanoi Stock Exchanges by the market shares, saw high increases in both revenues and profits. It posted 690 billion VND in revenues and 406 billion VND in profits in the third quarter, up 80 percent and 50 percent year-on-year, respectively. Its nine-month profits rose 53 percent during the period, reaching 947 billion VND.

The HCM City Securities Corporation announced 229 billion VND in profits in the first nine months, a rise of 59 percent over the same period of last year.

To date, two banks have reported their nine-month earnings. Vietcombank (VCB), the second largest-valued lender, had pre-tax profits of over 1 trillion VND, up 40 percent year-on-year, while net profits of BIDV (BID) increased just 7 percent during the period, taking in 4.6 trillion VND.

The biggest listed firm, Vietnam Dairy Products JSC (Vinamilk), witnessed revenues up 18 percent and pre-tax profits up 27.6 percent in the last three quarters, being 35.1 trillion VND and over 9 trillion VND, respectively.

Big earners also included software producer FPT Corporation (FPT) with profits of over 2 trillion VND, up 2 percent year-on-year, and PetroVietnam Power Nhon Trach 2 JSC (NT2) with 860 billion VND in profits, up 24.3 percent.

On the other end of spectrum, PV Gas (GAS) saw a steep fall in profits due to decreasing global oil prices. GAS's nine-month net profits declined 46 percent year-on-year to 4.2 trillion VND.

The average global oil prices declined 25 percent, from 60 USD per barrel in July-September last year to 45 USD per barrel in the last three months. Crude oil was traded around 50.6 USD per barrel last week. Market insiders forecasted that the oil price can rebound to 56-62 USD per barrel.

Petrovietnam Fertilizer & Chemicals Corporation (DPM) and HCM City Infrastructure Investment JSC (CII) also witnessed their profits down 16 percent and 20 percent, respectively.-VNA