Overview on Insurance Sector 2018

Vietnam insurance market continues to record a double digit growth above 20% in 2017. This is the evidence showing that insurance sector benefits from economic growth fostering by strong investment in infrastructure and personal consumption.

In 2017, non-life insurance shares witnessed little positive movement while investors shifted their focus on life insurance share BVH. The fact that life segment surpassed the non-life one in terms of preimium growth in 2017 can partially explain this practice. Moreover, after growing hot in two previous years and facing a challening year 2017 with many natural disaters, shares on non-life insurers were not very attractive.

TCM - Wait for room-expanding issue to be solved

Investors are expecting a bright future for domestic textile manufacturers, especially Thanh Cong Group (HSX: TCM), who operates in a fully vertical value chain including yarn, fabric, and garment. As for TCM, we believe that benefits from the CPTPP in the short run are unclear.

Investment And Exchange Rate In Vietnam Under Impact Of US's New Tariff Barriers

US President Donald Trump's was able, his first political victory, on 1^st December 2017 to announce the reduction of the corporate income tax from 35% to 20%. In order to offset the losses of an estimated USD 1.4 trillion  over the next 10 years, Trump goes on to impose taxes on imports of washing machines and solar panels.

On 1^st March 2018, Trump announced the imposition of a tariff of 25% on imported steel and 10% on aluminum. The US also threatened to increase the tax on car imports from the EU.

Concerned about a potential global trade war, we argue on the impact of Trump's new tax law in two ways: (1) investment and (2) exchange rate

US 10-yr bond yields going to 3.5% in 2018

• US 10-yr bond yields going to 3.5% in 2018.
• The ratio of US government debt to GDP reached 106% in 2017, creating risks for financial markets.
• Asset reallocation could cause disruption in 2018 as investors consider switching to/ from fixed income.

Review Total Output of the Electricity System in 2M 2018

Recent public data from EVN regarding total output of the electricity system in the first two months of 2018 showed positive signals from the beginning of the year.

Techcombank – AGM Note

2017 Business results and 2018 Plan

Overview of Aviation Services Companies

AST, CIA, SGN and SCS has displayed great growth in revenue and profit, and promises to maintain that performance. In terms of valuation, AST is the cheapest among them, trading at 11.3x trailing P/E, while SCS is the most expensive one (23.8x trailing P/E)

Development Trend of Dairy Sector in Vietnam

By the end of 2017, the dairy sector in Vietnam reached VND100,000 billion in revenue (+10% YoY), according to the Vietnam Dairy Association. The main growth driver came from powdered milk and drinking milk when the revenue growth from these two segments accounted for 75% of total industry growth

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: