Price drum set

Great benefits for investors and shareholders from Phat Dat’s shares in 2021

April 15, 2021 by www.vir.com.vn

The Astral City project by Phat Dat along National Road No.13 in Binh Duong city

At the 2021 annual general meeting of shareholders, Phat Dat approved the third dividend payment (the final dividend) of 2020 at the rate of 11.7 per cent in shares, resulting in a total of 3-time share dividends for 2020 at 28.7 per cent. This is a strong affirmation of the benefits the company offers from dividends for its shareholders and investors.

Dividends have been made regularly and continuously, bringing the total dividend ratio up to 53.7 per cent since 2019.

In 2020, Phat Dat made three share dividend payments to shareholders: 7 per cent, 10 per cent, and 11.7 per cent for the last payment expectedly made in the middle of the second quarter of 2021. Previously, tapping 2019’s profit, Phat Dat paid two dividends, including 12 per cent in cash and 13 per cent in shares.

Distributing 2020’s profit by stock dividends enables outstanding benefits to shareholders and investors, showing the Board of Directors and Board of Management’s great determination to promote the interests of the company’s investors and shareholders.

Comparison of the values of cash and stock dividends, assuming shareholders hold shares for a long term. Source: PDR

Thus, by way of share dividends, shareholders and investors will receive the following benefits:

First, compared to cash dividends, the total value of 2020’s share dividends (return on investment) would be over 7 times higher if the shareholder held shares during all three dividends to the end of May 2021 and 5.7 times higher if the shareholder sold shares right after the payment date. In this way, shareholders and investors can accumulate assets faster in the current context where the company made such strong growth and development.

As of April 6, 2021, Phat Dat’s shares price were valued at VND67,800. According to SSI’s assessments on investment and valuation, “SSI produces recommendations by applying RNAV [area navigation] method, and PDR’s RNAV is 4 per cent higher than the current share price. Presently, PDR is trading with 2021’s P/E and P/B of 12.4x and 3.8x, respectively.”

Simultaneously, PDR’s share price has increased by 138 per cent compared to 2019 and is expected to continue to grow in the coming time, providing even greater benefits to investors and shareholders.

Second, the average time shareholders receive additional shares is only 1 month (compared to the market average of at least 2-3 months) thanks to the company’s synchronous process to create favourable conditions crediting shares on investors’ accounts.

Finally, PDR’s liquidity on the market is considerably high, especially after PDR entered the VN30 basket.

Dividend payments from 2015 to 2020. Source: PDR

In 2015-2020, Phat Dat achieved a high growth rate in terms of business results, sustainable financial structure, and improved profitability, resulting in the net revenue increasing by 8.8 times (a compound annual growth rate [CAGR] of 54 per cent) and in the after-tax profit of the parent company’s shareholders increasing by 7.6 times (a CAGR of 50 per cent).

Therefore, the company possesses a stable cash flow to pay cash/share dividends to shareholders regularly at a rate of 20-30 per cent per year from the distribution of after-tax profit.

Thus, with the upcoming 11.7 per cent share dividend, PDR wishes to constantly increase benefits and surplus value for shareholders and investors in the future.

By Hieu Dang

Buyers of phony ‘mutant orchids’ from disreputable sellers lose huge sums of money

April 18, 2021 by vietnamnet.vn

What are some of the most popular investment channels in Vietnam? Real estate, securities, cryptocurrency and … mutant orchids.

Buyers of phony ‘mutant orchids' from disreputable sellers lose huge sums of money

Bui Huu Thanh in Quang Ninh has one hectare of orchid sapling cultivation area

Lan dot bien, or mutant orchid, has become a hot keyword on online forums as people believe the flowers can help them make a fortune.

In March, two mutant orchid transactions occurred in Hung Yen province, with the value of tens of billion of dong.

In Thuan Hung commune in Khoai Chau district, six Ngoc Son Cuoc mutant orchids were sold for VND34 billion. Meanwhile, Hoi Hoa Lan Pho Hien (Pho Hien Orchid Association) in Hung Yen City reported a record deal where one orchid sold for VND40 billion.

Also in March, B.H.T, the owner of an orchid garden in Hai Phong City, said he sold 5,000 Ngoc Son Cuoc mutant orchid seedlings for VND250 billion.

T said in his 12 hectare orchid garden, there are Ngoc Son Cuoc mutant orchid species valued at VND30 billion per plant.

Prior to that, on July 2, 2020, orchid collectors were talking privately that there was an orchid called ‘Huyen thoai buom dai ngan’ (Legend of a jungle butterfly). The owner of the orchid affirmed that it did not resemble any other orchid flower.

After that, they heard that one kie (the bud arising from a tree knot) from this orchid sold for VND15 billion.

Buying frenzy

The Vietnam Seed Association affirmed that mutant orchids have not been recognized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development as an orchid species for official circulation in the market.

Prosperous businesspeople have been willing to spend hundreds of billion of dong to buy mutant orchids, and many households have mortgaged their land, houses and assets to borrow money from banks to trade mutant orchids.

However, they have tasted bitterness because of their dream of getting rich from the charming flowers.

“I was tricked. I spent VND10 billion to buy mutant orchids. But the flowers are violet. Real mutant orchids must have a white jade color,” Nguyen Van Su from Vinh Phuc told Lao Dong newspaper.

The money Su used to buy the orchids came from loans from banks and relatives.

Su tried and failed to contact the gardeners he bought orchids from, including B.N in Chuong My, H.C in Hoai Duc, L.B.D in Dong Nai province, T.V.T and T.V.D in Hoa Binh.

The dozens of orchid plants Su bought were priced between VND70 million and VND1 billion.

On April 12, the community of orchid collectors was stirred up by the news that the owner of a mutant orchid garden in Ung Hoa district in Hanoi had fled with VND200 billion.

T is one of the victims of the gardener. N.H.P, 30, the younger brother of T, told reporters that T had a good business which brought VND3-5 billion a year. However, he later decided to “play big” by cooperating with C, the gardener.

Under the agreement between them, C provided mutant orchids to T for sale. However, T found that the orchids were not mutant. He then had to sell his car and land to pay his debts.

How did this begin?

In September 2020, the Di Linh district Police arrested Bui Van Sy, born in 1986 in Hoa Binh province. He was detained for four months in an investigation over the fraudulent act of selling mutant orchids, appropriating about VND2 billion.

In December 2020, the Tan Son district Police prosecuted and detained Bui Van Diep, 24, Dinh Van Do, 21, and Dinh Van Su, 31, from Hoa BInh province for swindling and appropriating citizens’ assets.

The three men had separated real mutant orchid flowers and attached them to normal orchid plants with glue and sold them as mutant orchids. They had appropriated VND1 billion by the time they were discovered.

More recently, on January 14, the Yen Thuy district Police detained Ta Thi Suoi Van, 29, and prosecuted her for selling counterfeit mutant orchids via social networks.

Van admitted that she had sold orchids that were not really ‘mutant’. Within one month, Van had earned VND4.6 billion from selling counterfeit orchids.

Lt. Gen. Nguyen Hai Trung, Director of Hanoi Police, on April 13 confirmed that the city’s agencies had received many complaints related to the trading of counterfeit mutant orchids.

Meanwhile, State Bank of Vietnam’s Hoa Binh Branch told commercial banks to tighten control over loans related to mutant orchids.

What do scientists say?

The Vietnam Seed Association affirmed that mutant orchids have not been recognized by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development as an orchid species for official circulation in the market.

Tran Duy Quy, former director of the Institute of Agricultural Genetics, said there are about 35,000 orchid species in the world, including over 1,000 in Vietnam. Mutant orchids are very rare.

He said that the transactions of orchids valued at tens of billion of dong are “abnormal”. He said that people who have deep knowledge about orchids and planting techniques are aware of the difficulties in mutant orchid care and multiplication.

Regarding the value of mutant orchids, Dang Van Dong, deputy director of the Fruit and Vegetable Research Institute, said there has been no scientific research affirming the medicinal effects or other uses of the plant.

In other words, the inflated prices of mutant orchids is just based on growers’ personal sense of beauty and rarity.

In many cases, the mutant orchids that people see in reality or in images are not genetic variations, but are just genetic recombinations.

La Thanh

Declining business confidence due to COVID-19

April 18, 2021 by vov.vn

More than 87% of local businesses affected by COVID-19

According to the 2020 Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) survey, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a widespread negative impact on the operations of local enterprises. More than 87% of them, including domestic private and foreign-invested firms, have reported that their operations last year were heavily impacted by the global pandemic.

The proportion of businesses reporting the impact of the pandemic as “completely negative” stood at 15% for domestic private enterprises and 13% for FDI firms, respectively. Only 2% of businesses, of which less than 1% are FDI enterprises, rated COVID-19 as having a “positive” effect, while approximately 11% of each group said they have suffered no impact from the pandemic.

Dau Anh Tuan, director of PCI Project and head of the Legal Department under the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), says that the narrowed domestic market coupled with disrupted supply chains represent the largest difficulties facing local businesses.

“COVID-19 has greatly affected business operations of various sectors from garments and textiles, tourism to aviation, and transportation which all endured a decline in revenue compared to the previous year. 30% of businesses said they had to lay off their employees. This is a very high rate, severely affecting enterprises’ operations,” Tuan states.

This comes as the turnover of numerous local firms in 2020 came in significantly lower due to travel limitations of consumers as they tried to either protect their health or comply with social distancing measures. Due to this, roughly 66% of domestic private firms and nearly 62% of FDI enterprises reported a fall in revenue last year. On average, business revenue dropped by about one thirds in comparison to 2019’s figures, he adds.

Decline in business confidence

Business size over the next two years is forecast to decrease significantly in comparison to a figure of 51% recorded in 2019. This marks the third lowest level since 2006, when the PCI survey initially began on a national scale.

This figure is only higher than the bottom recorded in the 2012 to 2013 period when the Vietnamese economy faced the dual impact of the global financial crisis coupled with domestic macroeconomic instability.

“In the 2020 PCI survey, up to 13% of businesses plan to scale down their business operations or close down. This is the highest level in 15 years since the VCCI conducted PCI surveys in all provinces and cities nationwide,” the PCI Project director says.

Many local businesses have therefore devised solutions aimed at dealing with the pandemic as well as setting out long-term solutions, such as changing and diversifying supply sources to the market whilst boosting digital transformation.

Local authorities across all levels should therefore give priority to assisting businesses and citizens to overcome the negative impact of the pandemic in a fair and appropriate manner. In particular, it can be viewed as necessary to consider investing resources in retraining and providing skills for workers who have lost their jobs due to COVID-19.

This is due to many labourers currently looking for jobs in sectors capable of responding to the crisis in a more flexible way, the PCI Project director emphasizes.

New normal adaptation

April 18, 2021 by english.thesaigontimes.vn

New normal adaptation

By Nguyen Dinh Bich

Overall, compared with the year-earlier period, although export sales reached US$48.7 billion, a three-fold increase (24.7% versus 8.7%), import value soared to US$47.1 billion, a jump of 9.5 times (26.4% versus 2.8%) – PHOTO: ANH QUAN

The new year has entered its second quarter and clear signs have been seen of a rapidly changing world market. In such a context, the Vietnamese economy, which has a high degree of openness despite its low economic development, has been strongly affected by import-export in an unprecedented way. How to cope with these fluctuations should therefore be taken into account.

Globally speaking, statistics obtained from the World Bank show that compared with the end of last year, the world power price climbed unexpectedly by 25.9% in February, Likewise, prices of non-fuel commodities rose by 7.1%, of which the price of farm produce rose by 6.4% (prices of cereals soared by 15%, prices of metals by 6.9% and prices of fertilizers by 26.9%, a record high). These hikes were very remarkable against 2020.

Given such conditions, Vietnam with her special basket of imports and exports will benefit significantly from exports. What’s more, she will suffer significantly from import activities, too.

Calculations from statistics released by the Vietnamese customs authorities over the past two months show that while Vietnam enjoyed US$285 million from her exports worth US$4.9 billion from 16 commodities with recorded quantities and value, she lost US$730 million in importing 18 commodities from the world market. That means Vietnam suffered a net loss of US$445 million, or 3% of the total import-export revenue of these groups of commodities. This is a completely reversing scenario from the year-ago period when Vietnam enjoyed significant net gains in exporting and importing these commodities.

A closer look shows that although during the past two months, export sales soared by 17.3% (US$4.9 billion versus US$4.2 billion), the increase would be only 10.5% (US$4.6 billion versus US$4.2 billion). Similarly, the import value of these commodities rose even higher, at 20.6% (US$9.98 billion versus US$8.3 billion). However, if adjusted to the price in the same period last year, the hike would be only 11.8% (US$9.25 billion versus US$8.3 billion).

What the above figures may indicate is world prices have contributed significantly to the amplification of Vietnam’s both import and export baskets.

It is this reason that Vietnam’s trade surplus has come down, absolutely and relatively, from US$1.82 billion in the year-ago period to US$1.64 billion now with the corresponding rate of 4.9% and 3.5%, respectively.

From all the above facts, the following conclusions can be drawn.

First, if the world prices continue their current trend in the coming months, Vietnam’s exports will rise. However, imports will outpace exports and trade surplus will decline. The possibility of a trade deficit cannot be ruled out in this context.

Second, all the above fluctuations will play a significant role in warming up the domestic market, which may prolong. The recent inflationary hike may be only the start of the process.

Two hidden corners

Aside from the above external affects, import-export fluctuations may come from the resonance of the following subjective factors.

First, although the new FTAs (Free Trade Agreements) have received heaps of praises, Vietnam’s import-export market still follows the same beaten track, if not worse.

Of the six markets which are Vietnam’s key foreign trade partners and are signatories in the new-generation FTAs, Vietnam saw the ratio of her total export sales to five of them—including China, Japan, South Korea, ASEAN and EU – 28 (EU plus Britain)—drop to 51.7% from 54.7% in the same period last year while the total import value from these markets rose from 71.9% to 74.5% year-on-year.

The only bright spot in this regard related to the Chinese market when the export ratio jumped from 14% to 16.4% year-on-year. However, this market was also the “darkest spot” when the ratio of imports soared from 24.9% to 32.7%.

Meanwhile, the ratio of export to the United States, Vietnam’s only key trading partner not to be governed by an FTA, also surged equally remarkably, from 26.3% to 28.4%. However, the ratio of import value from this market plummeted from 5.9% to 4.8%.

These wide fluctuations led to the fact that while Vietnam’s trade deficit with China was reinstated, trade surplus with the U.S. skyrocketed to a new record at US$11.6%.

Second, as far as groups of imports are concerned, agricultural-forestry-fishery commodities surged to US$4.25 billion posting a growth rate of 42.1% while their export value reached only US$6.27 billion and their growth rate was only a half, at 20.3%.

The import value of manufactured and processed commodities also rose to US$8.3 billion at a growth rate of 28.2%, slightly lower than export sales in this sector which were US$8.4 billion and posted a growth rate of 26.8%.

In this industry, there were two influential factors: imports from ASEAN climbed 1.88 times and China 1.77 times.

Of the group of manufactured and processed commodities, the relations between import from China and export to other markets were so clear. Imports from China over the past two months surged to US$5.83 billion (posting a growth rate of 69.8%). Meanwhile, exports of this group of commodities to the U.S. escalated to US$2.73 billion (63.9%); to other markets (excluding the six key markets) to US$2.36 billion (35.9%); and to EU – 28 to over US$1 billion (22.5%).

The most typical among this group of commodities was imports of machinery, equipment and other spare parts from China, which rose from US$1.98 billion to US$3.36 billion (ratio rising from 38% to 49.4%). Meanwhile, exports of the same commodities stateside rose from US$952 million to US$2.73 billion (from 30.4% to 48.8%).

To cut a long story short, although a strong rise in export should be encouraging, import also climbed sharply during the period, resulting in a shrinking trade surplus. Aside from fluctuating world prices, which are a force majeure, the possible reason was that the new-generation FTAs still failed to work effectively to boost export and restrict import. Consequently, only the U.S. market accounted for 36.9% of the hike of exports and only the Chinese market accounted for 62.2% of imports.

All considered, the relations between exports to the U.S. and imports from China should be a question policymakers have to solve to make Vietnam adaptive to the new normal in the making.