Week 06/11 – 10/11

fpt.vn, nvl.vn, pc1.vn, pdr.vn, stb.vn, vcg.vn, vic.vn, vjc.vn,

Company

FPT VN: announced the acquisition of Cardinal Peak – a 20-year-old technology service provider in the North American market.

Comment: As a friend mentioned at lunch time, “Of course they are winning business in North Asia, the Japanese don’t want to work with the indians!” I like to add that their education business is still undervalued, but this could be offset by the weak domestic IT environment.

NVL VN: Nice Star – related enterprise of NVL has settled all newly issued bonds worth VND1,500 bn in 2022.

NVL VN: BSC Securities announced the liquidation of a total of 41.7 mn NVL shares owned by NovaGroup and Diamond Properties since November 1st.

Comment: There’s no financial reason for this company to exist at the moment, however, as mentioned several times over. There is no real bankruptcy process, yet, in Vietnam.

PC1 VN: announced to finalize the right to pay stock dividends in 2022 at the rate of 15%. The ex-dividend date is November 22nd.

Comment: Another stock dividend….Keep it coming Vietnam you’re continuing to dilute your EPS all the way to 0.00000000000

PDR VN: will transfer all 99.8 mn shares of Phat Dat Industrial Park (equivalent to 99.8% of charter capital) to Phat Dat Holdings Company Limited with value of more than VND1,297 bn.

STB VN: the Dragon Capital fund group net bought a total of more than 21.4 mn STB shares from October 19th to November 6th, increasing its ownership to more than 6%.

VCG VN: Dragon Capital’s affiliated fund, Vietnam Enterprise Investments Limited, has bought an additional 1.3 mn VCG shares, sending its ownership rising from 4.82% to 5.07%.

VIC VN: Vietnam’s first electric vehicle (EV) maker VinFast plans to build a plant with an investment capital of 18.6 tn Rp (US$1.2 bn) in Indonesia, according to Presidential Chief of Staff of Indonesia Moeldoko.

VIC VN: Mr. Pham Nhat Vuong, called on India’s second richest, Gautam Adani, to discuss potential tie-ups with interests in port development and management, electricity and infrastructure.

Comment: Wait stop and tell me if you’ve heard this joke before, a dodgy indian billionaire and a dodgy vietnamese billionaire walk into a bar….

VJC VN: approved a plan to offer a maximum of 24.5 mn individual shares, equivalent to 4.5% of the outstanding shares on the market.

Comment: And another cap increase, VJC has to do this another 1,000x given their outstanding debt load and lawsuits.

Country

• Vietnam recorded a trade surplus of $24.6 bn in the first 10 months, the highest in five years, jumping 2.5 times year-on-year. Domestic companies had a trade deficit of $18 bn while foreign invested companies (including crude oil businesses) saw a trade surplus of $42.6 bn.
• The Government has submitted a proposal to extend the two-%age-point reduction of the value-added tax (VAT) for certain goods and services until mid-2024.
• In 10M2023, Vietnam will have 70 enterprises issuing bonds with a volume of VND180 tn (-45% YoY). Besides, the volume of pre-mature repurchases is VND191 tn (+30% YoY). Notably, the maturity volume in the last 3 months of the year will be VND61.6 tn.
• In 10M2023, Vietnam’s merchandise exports are estimated at $291.28 bn (only -7% YoY). The import turnover of goods is estimated to reach $266.67 bn (-12.3% YoY).
• Vietnam’s total retail sales of consumer goods and services saw a year-on-year + 9.4% to more than VND5.1 tn ($207.8 mn) during January – October, the General Statistics Office said. Revenue from retail sales of goods was nearly VND3.99 tn, accounting for 78.1% of the total and up 8.3% yoy.
• In October, the export value of wood and wood products was estimated at $1.2 bn (+6% MoM but -1% YoY). For 10M2023, the export turnover of wood and wood products reached $10.8 bn (-20% YoY).
• The State Bank withdrew a net of VND11,400 bn last week, overnight interbank interest rates fell below 1%
• Vietnam’s State budget collection in the first ten months of this year stood at 1.4 quadrillion VND ( 57 bn USD), accounting for 86.3% of the estimate, and down 9.2% year-on-year.
• The Ministry of Industry and Trade has announced a plan to import 119,000 tons of sugar in 2023 via auction. The plan outlines the volume and allocation method for sugar imports in the year. The sugar imports will be categorized under H.S. code 17.01 and will be distributed through an auction mechanism.
• The export turnover in October is expected to reach 32.3 bn USD, up 5.3 month-on-month, showing a positive signal given the 6.3% decrease recorded in the previous month. The agricultural sector continued to have impressive contributions to the export panorama. Agro-fisheries products earned about 3 bn USD, up 18.3% year-on-year. This is also the only commodity group to record growth in the first 10 months of 2023, with export turnover estimated at 26.7 bn USD, a year-on-year increase of 3.8%.
• About 167,700 retail stock accounts were opened last month, but 545,400 were closed, marking the first time closed accounts have outnumbered new ones on Vietnamese stock exchanges.
• The US Treasury Department’s semi-annual currency report for Q42023 shows that Vietnam, China, Germany, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan are on the US currency monitoring list. These countries have exceeded 2 out of 3 criteria: Trade surplus with the US is over $15 bn, global current account surplus exceeds 3% of GDP and net foreign exchange purchases are persistent and exceed 2% of GDP during one year period.
• The National Assembly approved the Resolution on the 2024 Socio-Economic Development Plan with 15 targets, including a GDP growth target of 6-6.5%.
• Vietnam’s power prices increased by 4.5% to over VND2,000 (8.2 U.S. cents) per kWh starting on November 9^th, the second time they went up this year.