Updates on Foreign Investors Activities Since Beginning of 2018

Foregin investors net bought around VND 11,618 billion over the first two months of 2018. They net bought, VND 11,720 billion on the HSX and VND 552 billion on the HNX.

US eyeing to increase tariff on steel: Not worrisome

Recently, amidst news that the US government has been given the green light to increase import duties on Chinese and Vietnamese steel (up to a minimum of 24% and 7.7% respectively), the market seems to be concerned about the impact on listed steelmakers. However, considering the domestic steel market conditions and the share of the US market in the export structure, Rong Viet Securities expects that the imposition of taxes, if any, will not be harmful to Vietnamese steel exporters. The imposition of US import tax on Chinese steel could even be a good news and a driving force for in-depth development of the Vietnamese steel industry.

PPC - There would be less surge in 2018

In 2017, larger contract volume (Qc) well played it role as the hedging instrument to help PPC achieve 74% growth YoY in operating profit despite a 10% reduction in sales volume. In addition, the reduction of financial expenses due to lower debt outstanding and large amount of extraordinary profits including the reversal of provision from QTP and the divestment from a subsidiary were the key catalysts for NPAT of PPC to grow by 52% YoY. When it comes to 2018, we expect lower Qc for PPC but total output would be higher thanks to the recovery in operation after major overhaul in 2017.In addition, having less extraordinary profits, business result of the company in 2018 would decline by around one-third and expect less surge as well.

MWG: 2017's business result and plan for 2018

MWG set the target for 2018 of 30% revenue growth and 18% net profit growth which is considerably lower than CAGR of 61% revenue and 49% net profit in the last 3 years. It is quite understandable considering the saturation of the consumer electronics market and the Green Grocery has just entered its expansion phase. Below are MWG’s plans for its 3 main retail chains:

Review 2017 Business Results of Listed Banks

In 2017, total customer loans of ten listed banks (in HSX and HNX) grew 19.4% YoY, higher than the growth of banking system’s growth but slightly lower than their growth in 2016. Compared to the loan growth of these other two State-owned banks (CTG and BID), VCB’s growth was lower, implying a more conservative of VCB’s management. In the meanwhile, the private commercial banks’ customer loan grew faster, with more than 20% YoY. In which, those of ACB, MBB, and VPB reached the highest figure, 21.5%, 22.2% and 26.3% respectively. Loan growth of EIB and STB were merely 16.6% and 12.1% respectively, which were far below their peers’. Nonetheless, the situation was better than that in 2016, with 2.5% and 7.0% respectively.

Food & Beverages: Never Been Out Of Spotlight

In 2017, the food & beverages sector continuously recorded a positive performance thanks to the outperform of FMCG industry. By the end of November 2017, FMCG industry posted a 5.4% and 4.6% growth in urban 4 cities and rural area, respectively

Power Industry: Looking for new investment opportunities

La Nina’s return in Q1 2018 makes the situation of this year similar to that of 2017: (1) operation of hydropower plants outpace their multi-year average level, (2) demand for thermal power plants may be affected by copious hydropower supply, (3) cool weather due to La Nina results in lower expected consumtion growth in household segment. Given weak intensity of La Nina in 2018, we expect that the performance of the hydropower group would decline moderately compare to 2017 while the core-business of thermal power group would be driven by two conflicting factors including: (1) the recovery in operation after being affected by major overhaul in 2017, and (2) a reduction in Qc, which is the key protection of their profit. From our view about the sector, we believe that the investment flow to power sector would need to look for new opportunities in IPO companies such as PV Power, GENCO 3, or upcoming IPO companies like GENCO 1 and GENCO 2.

Quick look at 2017's real estate companies result and 2018's prospect

Quick look at 2017's real estate companies result and 2018's prospect

PVT - Positive Outlook for 2018 Despite the Late Operation of Nghi Son

PVTrans ended 2017 with positive business results when the revenue slightly decreased by 9% to VND6,128 B but the PAT increased by 3.5% to VND496 B. This is an unexpected earnings when the 2017 business activities was forecasted not to be favorable because of the maintenance from Dung Quat oil refinery.

Airport Transactions - Multiple are Rising

Currently, Vietnam’s airports are immature, and have huge potential for yield improvement. For regulation, the French partner wants to establish the principle of “One Airport - One Operator” at all 22 airports currently managed by ACV, through a special decree or circular issued by the Ministry of Transport (MoT) before completing the acquisition. This means ACV will remain to be the only operator even when airports are expanded or upgraded.

Mekophar's Company Report Release (UPCOM: MKP)

Dear Sirs/Madams,

Rong Viet Securities Corporation hereby presents the Company Report on Mekophar Chemical Pharmaceutical JSC (UPCOM: MKP) with the overall opinion as follows: