Keep billions in cash

As of the end of the second quarter of 2024, while many Vietnamese businesses still face a huge burden of bond debt maturing at the end of this year, many "big guys" recorded cash balances in banks of up to tens of thousands of billions of VND.

According to the financial report for the second quarter of 2024 of PetroVietnam Gas Corporation (code GAS), the oil and gas company has nearly 44,000 billion VND (1.7 billion USD) in cash, an increase of 8% compared to the beginning of the year. With this huge amount of cash, PV Gas is considered one of the companies with the most money on the stock market, larger than the capitalization of some other leading companies.

Regarding business performance in the second quarter, GAS achieved revenue of more than VND30,000 billion, up 25% over the same period. Although cost of goods sold in the period increased by nearly VND4,600 billion compared to the same period last year, GAS's gross profit still reached more than VND5,700 billion, up more than 32%.

At the end of the second quarter, GAS's after-tax profit reached VND3,416 billion, an increase of VND220 billion compared to the after-tax profit of the same period last year of VND3,196 billion (equivalent to an increase of 6.8%).

Although the second quarter business results were better than the same period last year, due to a 25% decrease in after-tax profit in the first quarter, GAS's after-tax profit at the end of the first two quarters of 2024 reached nearly VND 6,000 billion, down 9% compared to the same period in 2023.

At the end of the second quarter, GAS's total assets reached more than VND95,000 billion. Thus, GAS's cash accounted for 46.3%.

Another company in the oil and gas industry, Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Joint Stock Company (code: BSR), also recorded a huge amount of cash, with nearly VND40,000 billion (USD1.57 billion) in the second quarter. Of which, cash and cash equivalents were VND26,142 billion; investments due for maturity were VND13,822 billion.

Although Hoa Phat Group Joint Stock Company (code HPG) of billionaire Tran Dinh Long recorded a sharp decrease in cash in the second quarter, its cash and cash equivalents and investments held to maturity still reached more than VND28,300 billion (USD1.1 billion), a significant decrease compared to VND34,000 billion at the beginning of the year.

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Mr. Tran Dinh Long. Photo: HH

In this quarter, Hoa Phat's business activities increased sharply; in which, revenue reached 39,555 billion VND, up 34% over the same period last year. After deducting cost of goods sold, Hoa Phat's gross profit reached 5,247 billion VND, up 64% over last year.

Excluding other expenses, Hoa Phat's after-tax profit reached VND3,319 billion in the second quarter, up 127% over the same period last year.

Accumulated in the first 6 months of the year, Hoa Phat's revenue reached more than 71,000 billion VND, up 25.3% and profit after tax reached 6,188 billion VND, up 238% over the same period in 2023.

In addition, the stock market also recorded many businesses with cash amounts of up to tens of thousands of billions of VND.

Accordingly, Duc Giang Chemical Group Joint Stock Company (code DGC) of tycoon Dao Huu Huyen recorded in its financial report for the second quarter of 2024 that it had cash of more than 10,200 billion VND, a slight decrease compared to the beginning of the year.

Of which, cash and cash equivalents were VND474 billion, down sharply from VND1,060 billion at the beginning of the year. Investments held to maturity increased sharply, reaching VND9,765 billion, up VND423 billion compared to the beginning of the year.

One of the giants that always holds a large amount of money is Bao Viet Group. The company's semi-annual consolidated report for 2024 recorded cash of more than VND 97,255 billion, down more than VND 6,000 billion compared to the beginning of the year. Of which, cash and cash equivalents reached nearly VND 5,992 billion; investments due to maturity reached more than VND 91,263 billion.

Realizing the ambition of Vietnamese billionaires

Holding tens of thousands of billions of dong in cash will help businesses expand and realize big ambitions with billion-dollar projects.

Despite being the leader in the domestic steel industry, Hoa Phat still has ambitions to expand its scale, promising to bring the group's revenue and profit to billions of USD.

Of which, the Dung Quat 2 project in Quang Ngai is being implemented with a scale of over 280 hectares, a designed capacity of 5.6 million tons of steel/year, including 4.6 million tons of hot rolled coil (HRC) and 1 million tons of special steel. The total investment capital of the project is VND85,000 billion (nearly USD3.5 billion).

Dung Quat 2 project is the great ambition of billionaire Tran Dinh Long, the head of Hoa Phat likened to the "iron fist" of the group. It is expected that when put into operation, the project will help the group's revenue increase by 80,000-100,000 billion VND/year.

Not stopping there, billionaire Tran Dinh Long said he will continue to pour billions of dollars into other mega projects in Phu Yen such as: Bai Goc Port (estimated at about 24,000 billion VND); Hoa Tam Industrial Park Infrastructure Investment and Business Project (about 13,300 billion VND); Hoa Phat Iron and Steel Complex Project in Hoa Tam Industrial Park (about 86,000 billion VND).

For chemical tycoon Dao Huu Huyen, Duc Giang Chemical Group Corporation (code DGC) chaired by him has more than 10,000 billion VND in cash and is also ambitious to expand the business scale to billions of USD.

One of the projects for Duc Giang to achieve this ambition is the investment in the Aluminum - Alumina Complex project in Dak Nong province, with a total expected investment of up to 57,000 billion VND (equivalent to 2.3 billion USD), a capacity of 2 million tons of Alumina and 300,000 tons of aluminum ingots. The project implementation period lasts 5 years.

At the shareholders' meeting in March, the chairman of Duc Giang Chemicals said that this project could bring in tens of thousands of billions of VND in revenue each year.

Chairman Dao Huu Huyen also admitted that owning a large amount of cash will give Duc Giang many advantages to propose projects in the provinces.

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