Vietnam Ocean Shipping JSC (VOS) has yet to release its 2017 financial statements but it has reported losses for 11 consecutive quarters with cumulative losses amounting to VNĐ1 trillion, eating up 74 per cent of its charter capital. (Photo vosco.vn) Decree No 58/2012/NĐ-CP, issued in July 2012, stipulates that securities shall be delisted if the listing company suffers a loss for three consecutive years, or total accumulated losses in the most recent audited financial statements exceed paid-up charter capital.
Seven companies which incurred losses in 2015 and 2016 continued to report losses in the last quarter of 2017 and their shares are in jeopardy of being removed from the stock market this year.
They include the Vietnam National General Export – Import SJC No 1 (TH1), Hung Long Mineral and Building Material JSC (HKL), Bach Dang TMC Construction Investment JSC (BHT), Textbook Printing JSC in HCM City (SAP), Song Da Electrical Engineering JSC (SDE), Simco Song Da JSC (SDA) and Saigontourist Transport Corporation (STT).
Despite earning a profit of 1.5 billion VND in the last quarter of 2017, Song Da Electrical Engineering still incurred a loss over 234 billion VND (10.3 million USD) for the whole year, a sharp increase compared to losses of 4.2 billion VND in 2016 and 9.8 billion VND in 2015.
Meanwhile, TH1, owned by “Shark” Tran Anh Vuong, one of the four sharks in the reality show Shark Tank Vietnam, reported a loss of over 142 billion VND (6.3 million USD) in 2017, much higher than its target of 10 billion VND loss for the whole year. It also reported cumulative losses of 268 billion VND in the two previous years.
Saigontourist Transport posted a loss of 19 billion VND last year which was also higher than the 2016’s loss of just 5 billion VND. The company attributed its poor performance to other expenses incurred during the tax inspections of the fiscal years of 2007-15, while taxi tax revenue fell.
Meanwhile, the 2017 profit target of 2 billion VND in 2017 of Hung Long Mineral was cracked when the company announced a loss of over 13 billion VND due to a sharp decline in sales. In 2015 and 2016, KHL reported losses of 2.74 billion VND and 57.3 billion VND, respectively.
Similarly, Bach Dang TMC Construction incurred another loss of 11.7 billion VND in 2017 though the company set a profit target of 2.5 billion VND.
Textbook Printing and Simco Song Da also announced losses for three consecutive years in 2017, but their losses declined sharply to around 1 billion VND each.
Vietnam Ocean Shipping JSC (VOS) has yet to release the 2017 financial statements but it has reported losses for 11 consecutive quarters with cumulative losses mounting up 1 trillion VND, eating out 74 percent of its charter capital.
On the other end of spectrum, Sai Son Cement JSC (SCJ) and Song Da 7 JSC (SD7) returned to profitability in 2017 after two years of incurring losses. This will help these two companies remain listed in the stock exchanges.-VNA
Vietnam start-up investment rises 42 percent
Hanoi, March 5 (VNA) - Up to 291 million USD was poured into Vietnamese start-ups last year, a year-on-year increase of 42 percent, according to a recent report by Topica Founder Institute (TFI).
Ninety-two start-ups received investment last year, almost a double from 2016.
Domestic investors accounted for 64 deals, while foreign investors made 28.
For the first time, local venture capitalists and angels bypassed foreigners in deal count. However, foreign investors still generated higher deal value.
The amount domestic investors poured into Vietnamese start-ups in the past year was only 46 million USD, relatively modest compared with the 245 million USD from foreign investors.
Among investors, 500 Startups led in successful investment deals, with 11 acquisitions, followed by ESP Capital, a new homegrown venture capital firm.
With 20 million USD in establishing funds, ESP Capital is focused on technology start-up companies in their beginning stages (pre-seed and seed funding stages), with investment funds from 50,000 USD to 300,000 USD.
Thanks to the rise of domestic investment funds, Vietnamese firms like VIISA, ESP, VSV, 500 Startups Vietnam and Shark Tank have completed 49 early-stage deals last year.
Formerly known as a "unicorn" startup in Asia, Sea Group (formerly Garena) topped the list of investors pouring capital into Vietnamese start-ups last year.
The report said that Sea paid 64 million USD to acquire an 82 percent of stake in Foody, a restaurant review start-up.
Besides, Sea also acquired two top Fintech and logistic players. The details are undisclosed but the value is estimated at up to 50 million USD.
CyberAgent Ventures, a venture capital fund from Japan, continues to be one of the most active funds in Vietnam.
The fund successfully exited four deals this year with Foody, CleverAds, Tiki and Vexere.
In addition, the Norwegian telecommunication company Telenor’s acquisition of 701Search, regional holding of Chotot.vn, a local classified site, for 109 million USD was one of the notable deals to watch within the Vietnamese start-up ecosystem.
According to observers, with a growth rate of about 22 percent a year, the Vietnamese e-commerce market is a lucrative slice for businesses with investments from many domestic and foreign tech giants.
Specifically, there are 21 e-commerce investment deals conducted with a total value of 83 million USD last year.
In particular, Tiki has received a Series C investment up to 54 million USD from investors JD.com and STC Investment.
Meanwhile, Sea, which is well-known for managing and operating popular games, is taking over two Vietnamese start-ups in this field.
Sea CEO Forrest Li shared with the media that the company is moving toward e-commerce. The acquisition of the two start-ups in Vietnam was driven by the attractiveness of the e-commerce market here, reported Thoi bao kinh te Viet Nam (Vietnam Economic Times).
Following e-commerce is foodtech with the presence of Foody, Cooky and an undisclosed platform and social community related to food and restaurants, at a total deal size of 65 million USD.
Fintech ranked third, with eight investment deals, worth 57 million USD.
Media is also one of the hot areas with nine deals and more than 18 million USD in deal value.
Logistics and online travel are also included in the list with five deals in total, valued at 18 million USD and 10 million USD, respectively, with some big names including Vntrip and Inspitrip.-VNA
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