Firms grow along with Vietnam's tradition of burning votive paper for dead

By Minh Son    August 20, 2018 | 08:25 pm PT
Firms grow along with Vietnam's tradition of burning votive paper for dead
In the last four quarters, CAP has doubled revenues and quadrupled profit. Photo by VnExpress
With burning paper copies of money as votive offerings to ancestors being a popular tradition, the few companies that make them have seen sales rise.

While the votive products are still made mostly in households or villages around the country, there are also two listed firms that make them.

They are Hai Phong Funeral Services JSC (CPH) and Yen Bai Joint Stock Forest Agricultural Products and Foodstuff Company (CAP), both of which have grown steadily over the years.

CPH reported revenues of VND102 billion ($4.5 million) last year from sales of funeral and burial products and services at the Ninh Hai - Hoan Vu and Phi Liet cemeteries in the northern city of Hai Phong. Revenues had been VND95 billion ($4.2 million) in 2016.

Last year it became the first funeral services company to list on the Unlisted Public Company Market, or UPCOM.

In 2016 and 2017 its cash dividend payments were 16.67 percent and 15.7 percent, respectively.

As for CAP which is listed on the Hanoi stock exchange, nearly half its revenues come from votive products. 

In the first half of this year it reported revenues of nearly VND240 billion ($10.7 million), up nearly VND100 billion ($4.4 million) from the same period last year. The firm’s profit after tax was more than VND31 billion ($1.37 million).

Established in 1972 in the mountainous province of Yen Bai as a state-owned paper mill, the firm was privatized in 2004.

This year it has set itself a revenue target of VND320 billion ($14.2 million) from selling 5,800 tons of votive paper,16,500 tons of paper and 20,000 tons of cassava starch.

Though it faces difficulties on the export front, increased demand in the domestic market means its business is still growing.

In the last four quarters, CAP has doubled revenues and quadrupled profits.

It also pays dividends every year: 20 percent advanced cash dividend for 2018, 27 percent for 2017 and 34 percent for 2016.

 
 
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