Securities firms

Of which, many companies expected their profits to reach trillions of dong.

Trading hours at Ho Chi Minh City Securities Corporation (HSC). Photo nhipcaudautu.vn

At the General Meeting of Shareholders held at the end of April, Viet Capital Securities JSC (VCSC) approved a business plan with a profit before tax target of VND1.25 trillion, up 31.4 per cent year-on-year.

In 2021, VCSC will restart large-scale M&A consulting deals, strengthening its position in investment banking (IB).

VCSC’s existing contracts worth around VND40 trillion are in consumer finance, consumer goods and logistics. Revenue from these contracts is estimated to reach VND2.05 trillion, up 18.5 per cent over last year.

The growth scenario is based on expectations that the VN-Index will hover around the 1,250 point-level this year.

If the plan is completed, VCSC will be in the list of securities firms with profit before tax reaching over VND1 trillion after two years of absence.

With the bullish market, Ho Chi Minh City Securities Corporation (HSC) also set a target of VND1 trillion in profit before tax in 2021.

This year, HSC aims to achieve total revenue of over VND2.6 trillion, up 68 per cent year-on-year. Its profit before tax is expected to reach over VND1.2 trillion, up 82 per cent.

The company’s return on average equity (ROAE) in 2021 is predicted to climb 17.1 per cent. Of which, brokerage, margin lending and proprietary trading are still the main businesses that create HSC’s profit.

According to HSC, the business plan is built on the average daily market transaction value in 2020, the first quarter result and the market trend for this whole year.

In the first quarter of 2021, HSC posted an increase of 218.7 per cent in profit after tax to VND321.8 billion.

Similarly, at the General Meeting of Shareholders this year, VNDirect Securities Corporation also achieved a consensus on the parent company’s revenue target of over VND2.5 trillion, up 20 per cent against last year and expected profit before tax of VND1.1 trillion, up 29 per cent.

This profit plan is built according to a scenario that forecasted the VN-Index to fluctuate in the range of 1,180 – 1,230 points in 2021.

This is also the first time VNDirect has set an ambitious profit target of up to trillions of dong.

At the end of the first quarter of 2021, VNDirect’s total revenue climbed 132.7 per cent year-on-year to top VND1.06 trillion, resulting in an increase of nearly 725 per cent to VND482.5 billion in profit after tax.

Techcom Securities JSC (TCBS) and SSI Securities Corporation (SSI) are other securities companies with targets of over VND1 trillion in profit this year.

These two companies also posted profit before tax of over VND1 trillion last year.

In 2021, TCBS estimated its profit before tax to reach over VND3.3 trillion, up 23 per cent over last year.

In the first quarter of 2021, TCBS recorded total revenue of over VND1.02 trillion with profit before tax of VND843 billion, up 61 per cent and 65 per cent over same period of last year, respectively. Pre-tax profit margin reached 82 per cent.

TCBS occupies the largest market share in profit among securities companies in Vietnam, accounting for 21.8 per cent of the market share.

SSI, which is the second largest securities firm in profit, also expected an optimistic result this year, even though it hasn’t held the General Meeting in Shareholders this year, according to report prepared for the meeting.

In 2021, SSI aims to achieve consolidated revenue of over VND5.3 trillion and consolidated profit before tax of VND1.87 trillion, which is up 20 per cent year-on-year.

The Board of Directors of SSI will make accommodative adjustment if the VN-Index and the market’s liquidity do not reach the assumed levels.

VNS

Many firms ask workers to take turns going to the workplace or reduce their work hours due to COVID-19 (Photo: VietnamPlus)

Hanoi (VNA) – While the current solutions mainly focus on pandemic-hit workers and people, businesses have not received support apart from loans.

To support workers victimised by COVID-19 , the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs ( MoLISA ) has proposed the Government extend the delay of social security premium payment until the end of 2020. It has also enhanced vocational training for laid off workers to help them return to the labour market .

Of note, the ministry has called on the Government to loosen conditions and criteria to help firms access an aid package totalling 62 trillion VND (2.67 billion USD).

31 million people affected

While the number of laid off workers has been on the rise, job creation in the first six months of the year remains low, standing at 540,000, representing 36.5 percent of the set target and 76.1 percent year-on-year.

Recruitment started to recover in June. However, it was modest compared to the same period last year. The figures in HCM City and Hanoi plunged 28 percent and 23 percent, respectively.

Director General of the MoLISA’s Department of Employment Vu Trong Binh said that COVID-19 has taken its toll on close to 31 million people over 15 years of age as of this June, including the laid-off and workers who must take temporary leave or have their work hours and income reduced. Up to 57.3 percent of them suffered from salary cuts.

Some firms such as PouYuen Vietnam Company is set to cut down nearly 3,000 labourers, while Hue Phong Garment-Textile and Woodworth Wooden also plan to lay off more than 2,000 workhands as orders was only half of the usual.

Domestic travel companies have yet to fully recover after the social distancing period, while it is still infeasible to send Vietnamese abroad. The ravaging pandemic has dealt a blow to travel firms.

Do Anh Tuan, a representative of the Hanoitourist travel company said that its operation results in the first two quarters hit merely 9 percent of the year’s plan, while the number of overnight visitors diminished 39 percent and occupancy rate was 43 percent year on year.

“Even though firms have asked workers to take turn to stay away from work and reduce work hours, as well as applied technologies and restructured, the situations remain tepid,” Tuan said.

Deputy Director of Saigontourist Nguyen Hoai Thu said the company is exerting efforts to maintain its resources and keep from dismissing employees.

However, its resources will have been drained out by the end of June. The firm has to review its employees to devise new measures for upcoming months.

Amending conditions for firms’ access to aid packages

The Prime Minister has issued Decision No.15/QD-CP on the implementation of aid for people hurt by the pandemic. While the current solutions mainly focus on pandemic-hit workers and people, businesses have not received support apart from loans to pay temporary leave, and the postponement of social insurance payment. Therefore, they remain in dire situations.

The number of laid off workers signing up for unemployment allowance continues to rise (Photo: VNA)

The Government has approved a credit policy worth 16 trillion VND targeting employers (enterprises, organisations and business households, among others). The aid is to help them manage temporary leave payment and recover operation.

Nonetheless, a host of localities noted that firms who want to borrow money for such payment are facing obstacles in proving their financial troubles stipulated in Point 2 of Article 13 in Decision No. 15/2020/QD-TTg.

The point stated that to be eligible for the aid, enterprises must be in financial difficulties, have insufficient balance to pay for temporary leave and use up their reserves for severance pay.

No firms have so far received the assistance.

MoLISA Deputy Minister Le Van Thanh said the ministry has suggested that the Government address difficulties and create favourable conditions for firms to maintain operation and ensure stable jobs for workers.

The MoLISA has asked the Government to loosen some conditions to help them access the 62-trillion-VND aid package. In addition, it will seek the Government’s permission in enabling firms to use unemployment allowances in vocational training, Thanh added.

The ministry is building a revised decision to supplement Point 2 of Article 13. Accordingly, the conditions would be adjusted to “revenues in the Q1 reduced by at least 20 percent compared to the previous quarter or the same period last year”, instead of “firms using up their reserves for severance pay./.

At present three out of nine farms in Nghia Dan’s farm cluster have had solar panels installed

For more than a decade TH Group – famous for its TH true MILK brand – has been operating a $1.2-billion farm cluster project in the central province of Nghe An’s Nghia Dan district, featuring a state-of-the-art dairy cow farm and fresh milk production plant, which currently has 49,000 dairy cows and daily capacity of 400 tonnes of fresh milk. The number of cattle will rise further to over 200,000 by 2025.

In order to save production costs and contribute to ensuring environmental protection and national energy security, TH Group has been operating a state-of-the-art system of solar power panels on the roofs of the farm since last September, and the system has been connected with the national power grid.

Power produced from the panels has met one-eighth, and sometimes even one-fifth, of the farm’s electricity demand.

At present three out of nine farms in the cluster have had the panels installed, and it is expected that by the year’s end another three farms and a feed mill will have roofs covered with solar panels.

Each year, the farm cluster’s solar power system can produce about 4,281MW, helping TH Group reduce about 2,100 tonnes of CO2 a year.

Not only acting as an electricity producer, this system also works as a heat preventer which helps cool down the farm’s roofs and creates a good living habitat for dairy cows, contributing to producing high-quality milk.

In its business strategy, TH Group is consistent with its one-liner company mottos featuring pivotal values such as “For true happiness”, so as to bring the best products to consumers and contribute to the government’s efforts to make the economy greener for sustainable development, and with the harmonisation of benefits between the company and the community.

TH stands ready to recoup investment capital over a long time in order to ensure sustainable development, social security, and environmental protection based on the use of modern technology.

Before developing electricity from solar energy, TH Group has also been producing power from sugarcane bagasse, a type of by-product made from TH Group’s Nghe An Sugarcane Co. Ltd., (NASU).

All electricity used for this company’s operation is self-produced, part of which is sold to Vietnam Electricity. It has been deemed an effective circular economy model with all waste and by-products of high value and reused.

At NASU, the technology of producing power from sugarcane bagasse has been integrated into all production processes. The bagasse from the process of pressurising sugarcane to collect sugar is used as a material for firing furnaces and producing heat. The heat with high pressure from the process will enable the operation of turbines and dynamos, and then electricity is created to serve the factory’s demand.

In addition, along with sugarcane bagasse, mud waste and gas resulting from the production process are also employed to generate electricity. NASU has applied other models and methods to “green” all production processes in order to protect the environment.

Environmental protection is one of the six key pillars in TH Group’s sustainable development policies, with the group advancing and applying many solutions for its green development.

For instance, since the middle of 2018 all TH true Marts nationwide have stopped using nylon bags, and instead ultilise biodegradable environmentally-friendly equivalents. The group has also implemented many programmes on collecting milk packages for recycling, presenting canvas bags to customers, and encouraging them to reduce the use of plastic waste. Since last October, TH Group has also been selling canvas bags through its TH true Mart system nationwide.

By Thanh Dat

The Vietnamese Government also offered aid packages to enterprises and the unemployed. — VNA/VNS Photo

BRUSSELS — The portal of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber has run an article hailing Việt Nam’s consistent, drastic and effective measures against the COVID-19 pandemic, adding that the Vietnamese market remains attractive to Austrian firms.

The article said it is not without reason that the Austria’s IC- Steiermark Centre (ICS) has brought Việt Nam into a focus programme this year, on the back of its 2.9 percent economic growth, which could reach 5-7 per cent this year.

It quoted Austrian Commercial Counsellor in HCM City Dietmar Schwank as saying that Việt Nam has insisted on virus containment and wide quarantine for immigrants. Such policy has proven successful in both health and economic terms. Border closure, a 14-day quarantine without exceptions and a consistent anti-pandemic plan have helped Việt Nam curb the virus spread.

Meanwhile, failures in the tourism sector which experienced a boom with 18 million visitors in 2019 could be offset by public investment, manufacturing and domestic consumption.

Additionally, the Vietnamese Government also offered aid packages to enterprises and the unemployed.

In political and macro-economic terms, the author hailed Việt Nam as a stable country with its key policies of economic liberalisation, investment in infrastructure and foreign investment attraction. All factors have made Việt Nam attractive to Austrian companies.

According to the article, the European Union – Việt Nam Free Trade Agreement, which took effect in August 2020, has also brought advantages to bilateral cooperation. Việt Nam is now the largest trade partner of Austria in Southeast Asia, with imports from the latter amounting to nearly 1 billion EUR. New business opportunities could be identified in infrastructure, healthcare, energy, urban technology, environment, security, disaster management, hi-tech products and production machinery.

The ICS’s adding Việt Nam into its 2021 focus programme could open up a series of events such as seminars and trips to the country this autumn.

The centre said exporters and Austrian firms operating in mechanical engineering, food and pharmaceuticals will enjoy many chances when navigating the Vietnamese market. — VNS