Loc Troi establishes another subsidiary; VNG focuses on developing AI; Kinh Bac teaches chip manufacturing

Loc Troi establishes another subsidiary; VNG focuses on developing AI; Kinh Bac teaches chip manufacturing

Masan Group enters Fortune Southeast Asia 500; VNG focuses on AI development; Vietnam Airlines will divest from a "golden goose"; Loc Troi establishes a subsidiary with capital of 55 billion VND; Kinh Bac opens a school to teach chip manufacturing.

Loc Troi established a subsidiary with capital of 55 billion VND

Loc Troi Group Corporation will establish a subsidiary with a charter capital of 55 billion VND to wholesale scrap, fertilizer, packaging, etc.

Accordingly, Loc Troi and three subsidiaries, Loc Troi Agricultural Products JSC; Loc Troi Agricultural Services LLC and Loc Troi Agricultural Research Institute, will jointly contribute capital to establish Loc Troi Agricultural Materials JSC.

Loc Troi currently has 22 subsidiaries and 5 associated companies, operating mainly in the fields of rice production and wholesale, trading in pesticides, agricultural materials...

The new subsidiary has a charter capital of VND55 billion, of which Loc Troi contributes VND41.25 billion, equivalent to 75% of the capital, and appoints Mr. Huynh Van Thon, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Loc Troi Group, as the representative of the capital contribution. Next, Loc Troi Agricultural Products and Loc Troi Agricultural Services each contribute VND5.5 billion (10%), while Loc Troi Agricultural Research Institute contributes VND2.75 billion (5%).

Loc Troi Agricultural Supplies' main business activities are wholesaling fertilizers, pesticides and other chemicals used in agriculture; wholesaling scrap, metal and non-metal waste; wholesaling all kinds of packaging. Head office address is at 23 Ha Hoang Pho, My Xuyen ward, Long Xuyen city, An Giang province.

As of March 31, 2024, Loc Troi has 22 subsidiaries and 5 associated companies, operating mainly in the fields of rice production and wholesale, trading in pesticides, agricultural supplies...

Looking at Loc Troi's revenue structure, it can be seen that in the first quarter of 2024, food - rice contributed 85% of total revenue, reaching nearly 3.3 trillion VND, but the gross profit margin was thin, only 3.6%. Meanwhile, the main profit-generating segment for Loc Troi Group with a gross profit margin of more than 32% was pesticides.

Due to exchange rate differences causing financial costs to increase, Loc Troi suffered a net loss of nearly VND 97 billion in the first quarter, an increase from the loss of VND 81 billion in the same period in 2023, still far from the profit target of VND 50 billion in 2024.

Vietnam Airlines will divest from a "golden goose"

The information was released at the Vietnam Airlines General Meeting of Shareholders. Specifically, this year, Vietnam Airlines will divest from Tan Son Nhat Cargo Services Company Limited (TCS) to supplement income and cash flow.

Tan Son Nhat Cargo Services Company Limited (TCS) is the golden goose of Vietnam Airlines.

Previously, the Company had included in its 2024 plan the expected income from divesting TCS capital of about VND 1,700 billion on a cautious basis regarding the value and progress of divestment.

Established 30 years ago, TCS is a joint venture between Vietnam Airlines, SASCO and Singaporean aviation services company SATS, operating mainly in the cargo service sector. In 2023, TCS also recorded positive business results, with total revenue reaching VND 702 billion, pre-tax profit of nearly VND 394 billion, and ROE of up to 336%.

At this meeting, the Board of Directors of Vietnam Airlines also submitted to the General Meeting of Shareholders for approval the appointment of Mr. Daisuke Suzuki (born in 1972) as a member of the Board of Directors to replace Mr. Hiroyuki Kometani (who has just submitted his resignation).

It is known that Mr. Daisuke Suzuki is currently the Deputy General Director and Director of Strategy Division of ANA Holdings. Currently, ANA Holdings is a strategic partner and owns 5.62% of shares in Vietnam Airlines.

This year, Vietnam Airlines aims to transport about 22.64 million passengers, an increase of nearly 8% compared to 2023 and equal to 99% of 2019. The airline aims to achieve consolidated revenue of VND 105,946 billion, an increase of 14% compared to the previous year, with expected net profit at VND 4,233 billion.

However, Vietnam Airlines' restructured debts are also coming due, especially from July, which will put great pressure on the airline's cash flow. Facing this challenge, Vietnam Airlines has prepared a comprehensive restructuring plan, including restructuring assets, capital sources and the entire management apparatus.

“In 2024, the airline will focus on implementing the restructuring project, with comprehensive solutions for restructuring assets, capital sources, investment portfolio, organizational structure and corporate governance innovation. The main goal is still to reduce remaining losses and balance revenue and expenditure in 2024,” said Mr. Dang Ngoc Hoa, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vietnam Airlines.

VNG focuses on developing AI

With expectations for new growth, VNG Corporation has set a revenue target of over VND 11 trillion in 2024, up 46% compared to 2023. This is also a record high if achieved. At the same time, it aims to return to profit with a net profit target of VND 195 billion.

Le Hong Minh, CEO and founder of VNG at the 2024 VNG Shareholders' Meeting

In particular, VNG will increase investment in AI (artificial intelligence) and new technologies to improve productivity and service quality. The information was given at the 2024 VNG Shareholders' Meeting.

According to Mr. Le Hong Minh, CEO and founder of VNG, the Company is currently one of the fastest AI-catching units in Southeast Asia, in terms of investment, research, deployment, and commercialization, generating revenue from AI.

VNG is applying AI to develop 3 different layers: infrastructure, platform and application. Of which, VNG's AI Cloud infrastructure is leading, serving both domestic and foreign customers. For the platform layer, by the end of 2023, the Zalo LLM model was assessed to have reached 150% of GPT-3.5 capacity, according to the VMLU Vietnamese Proficiency Assessment Standards.

Zalo is also actively applying GenAI (generative artificial intelligence) to upgrade services for users, typically AI Avatar - the first application of GenAI developed by Zalo, which attracted 6.8 million users in 2023. The intelligent virtual assistant Kiki has now been installed on 600,000 cars and recorded about 230,000 visits per day.

Besides Zalo, the core “Game” segment also applies AI in the process of releasing and developing games. Mr. Minh said that applying AI is helping VNG’s game studio save 50-70% of production time and costs, some stages can increase work efficiency 3 times compared to normal.

At the conference, Mr. Le Hong Minh said that other key business units of VNG are also promoting the goal of “Going Global”. GreenNode, a new member of VNG Digital Business, has become an official cloud service partner of Nvidia (NCP - Nvidia Cloud Partner), with priority access to Nvidia’s AI Factory and leading AI chip generations (GPUs). On June 24, GreenNode’s AI Cloud Server Cluster located in Thailand, in cooperation with Nvidia and ST Telemedia Global Data Centers, will officially open.

Kinh Bac opens school to teach chip manufacturing

Kinh Bac City Development Corporation (KBC) Chairman Dang Thanh Tam announced plans to open a vocational school to train chip manufacturing workers at the 2024 KBC General Meeting of Shareholders.

Mr. Dang Thanh Tam, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Kinh Bac City Development Corporation (KBC)

The Chairman of KBC expressed his expectation for Vietnam’s high-tech investment attraction. Accordingly, at Trang Due 3 Industrial Park, many customers are waiting to rent, the whole building is high-tech investment. It is expected that this area can attract investment from 10-15 billion USD.

This is why KBC will help many local authorities in terms of training because the Government is looking to attract investors to produce chips but currently has absolutely no human resources.

KBC has approached the world's largest chip manufacturing investor, TSMC, the newest "big guy" NVIDIA is just a designer, while TSMC is still the manufacturer. TSMC also wants to enter Vietnam, but when surveyed, it found that there is no human resource.

Typically, in Ho Chi Minh City recently, Intel invested in phase 1, packaging and testing in the high-tech park and received very high incentives, but when it came to phase 2, the production phase, it was abandoned. The reason was not because Ho Chi Minh City did not meet the requirements, but because there was no human resources, training chip production workers required at least 3 years, not 6 months like other industries.

Therefore, KBC is coordinating with training organizations in Taiwan and South Korea - the two largest chip manufacturing regions in the world - to open a series of vocational schools. Chairman Dang Thanh Tam discussed at the Congress.

Mr. Dang Thanh Tam also said that in addition to developing industrial parks, the Company will stick to industrial parks to create added value, forming a circular economic chain. In KBC's industrial parks, services are complete, and in the near future, the Company will develop more rooftop solar panels at factories to meet green energy standards.

Masan Group enters Fortune Southeast Asia 500 ranking

The American magazine Fortune has just announced the Fortune Southeast Asia 500 Ranking - Top 500 largest companies in Southeast Asia. This is the first time Fortune has brought this ranking to Southeast Asia, the list includes companies and corporations from 7 countries: Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Philippines and Cambodia.

Masan Group is the leading company in Fortune's ranking in the field of consumer goods - retail of essential goods in Vietnam.

“With the inaugural Fortune Southeast Asia 500 list, we want to shine a spotlight on Southeast Asia’s impressive growth story and the largest companies driving the region’s diverse and growing economy,” said Khoon-Fong Ang, Fortune’s Chief Operating Officer for Asia.

To be included in the Fortune Southeast Asia 500, a company must achieve a minimum revenue threshold of $460.8 million.

In the consumer goods retail sector in Vietnam, Masan Group is the leading company in Fortune's rankings with 2023 revenue reaching more than 3.2 billion USD, affirming its leading position in the consumer retail industry in the challenging macro context of the past year.

In 2024, Masan's leaders said they will focus on developing Masan Consumer, implementing the "Go Global" strategy to become a culinary ambassador to the world's 8 billion consumers with strong brands, increasing valuation to billions of USD, and aiming for 10-20% of revenue from the global market.

Among the Vietnamese companies on the Fortune Southeast Asia 500 list, in the Top 50 are Petrolimex (23rd), with revenue of 11.5 billion USD; Agribank (37th), revenue of 7.536 billion USD; BIDV (39th) - 7.518 billion USD; Vingroup (45th) - 6.777 billion USD and Vietinbank (48th) - 6.583 billion USD.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/loc-troi-lap-them-cong-ty-con-vng-tap-trung-phat-trien-ai-kinh-bac-day-san-xuat-chip-d218279.html