Five banks among Vietnam’s top 10 profit makers

By Minh Son May 5, 2020 | 09:30 pm PT

A man withdraws cash from an ATM in Long Bien District, Hanoi. Photo by Shutterstock/Saigoneer.

Vietnam’s top 10 most profitable listed companies, half of them banks, posted VND37 trillion ($1.6 billion) in pretax profits in the first quarter.

Vinhomes became the most profitable listed company with VND10.1 trillion ($431 million) in pretax profit, up 200 percent year-on-year.

The surge came as the company’s revenue from financing activities tripled to VND8.6 trillion ($367 million), thanks to a divestment of a subsidiary.

It was followed by Vietcombank with pretax profits of VND5.2 trillion ($222 million), down 11 percent.

The bank retained its most profitable lender title in previous quarters, but saw less profit as provision for doubtful debt went up 40 percent to VND2.1 trillion ($90 million). Its net interest income grew by 6 percent, down from 37 percent last year.

Four other banks made the top 10 list. Techcombank and VPBank posted growths of 19 and 63 percent respectively, while VietinBank’s pretax profit dropped 6 percent and that of Military Bank (MB) fell 9 percent.

In third place was dairy giant Vinamilk, whose pretax profit stayed mostly unchanged at VND3.3 trillion ($141 million). It is the only food and beverage company that made the list.

The company saw declining revenues from fresh milk as a program to provide milk to schools was suspended owing to the latter being closed for a long time, but saw rising revenues from drinking yogurt.

Its revenue rose 7 percent year-on-year to VND14.1 trillion ($602 million), with 85 percent of them from the domestic market.

State-owned gas producer Petrovietnam Gas Corp (PV Gas) dropped four places in the ranking from last year as its pretax profits went down 22 percent to VND2.9 trillion ($124 million).

As oil prices plummeted amidst the coronavirus crisis, its revenue fell 9 percent year-on-year to VND17 trillion ($725 million).

Steel giant Hoa Phat was apparently not affected by the virus as its pretax profit rose 22 percent to VND2.6 trillion ($111 million).

Stock brokerage KB Vietnam said that the company’s large size has helped it secure a larger market share while smaller steel firms struggled.

The Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) claimed the last place with pretax profit down 22 percent to VND1.9 trillion ($81 million).

As travel restrictions to curb the spread of the virus has resulted in the stoppage of most flights, ACV estimates its revenue this year would fall 38 percent year-on-year to VND11.3 trillion ($482 million).