For contractor Coteccons, failure teaches success: chairman

Losing the bid to build the Long Thanh airport terminal in the southern province of Dong Nai proved to be a blessing in disguise for Coteccons, a leading construction firm in Vietnam, said chairman Bolat Duisenov.

"Coteccons is a humble but resilient team. We lose but we are not defeated. Losing the Long Thanh airport terminal bid did not make us stop,” he told the firm’s 2023 general annual meeting of shareholders on Tuesday.

“This was a valuable experience for us in preparing bidding documents and joining tenders for public investment and infrastructure projects in the coming time,” he stressed.

Coteccons in August lost the bid for Package No. 5.10 “Construction and Equipment Installation for the Passenger Terminal Building” to a consortium led by Turkish conglomerate IC Ictas.

Vietur consists of IC Istas, a subsidiary of IC Holdings of Turkey, and nine Vietnamese firms: Ricons; Newtecons; Sol E&C; Construction Corporation No. 1; Vinaconex; Hanoi Construction Corporation; Phuc Hung Holdings; ATAD and Hawee.

Coteccons is diversifying its activities and industries, and focusing its resources on implementing FDI and industrial park projects as a contractor, he stated.

Regarding the targets of $3 billion in revenue and $1 billion in capitalization by 2025, Duisenov affirmed that “we will fulfill them but it may take longer”.

Reporting the business situation in the first quarter of the new fiscal year (from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024), CEO Vo Hoang Lam said that Coteccons’ revenue is expected to increase by 15-20% and its profit will be more positive than the same period last year, adding specific data will be announced soon.

The value of newly signed contracts for the 2024-2025 period has reached over VND20 trillion ($816.66 million)," Lam said.

The company’s board of directors predicted that from the second half of 2024 onwards, new project development plans which are the source of work for construction contractors will recover. The domestic construction market is also expected to benefit from the wave of FDI pouring into Vietnam.

According to a resolution adopted at the meeting, in the first half of the year, Coteccons recorded total consolidated revenue of over VND7.74 trillion ($315.94 million), up 30% year-on-year and reaching 88% of the set plan of VND7.64 trillion.

Its consolidated after-tax profit hit VND52 billion ($2.12 million), equivalent to 118% of the plan of VND44 billion and up 862% year-on-year.

In fiscal year 2024, Coteccons targets consolidated revenue of VND17.79 trillion ($726.2 million) and consolidated after-tax profit of VND274 billion ($11.2 million).

Cash flow from its main business activities in the first six months of 2023 increased by 172% compared to the same period in 2022, from minus VND1.3 trillion ($53 million) to VND931 billion ($38 million).

Notably, the total debt-to-total equity ratio soared from 101% in 2022 to 158% in the first half of 2023. The supervisory board urged the company to reduce this ratio to ensure financial safety.

Coteccons is listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) as CTD. It closed Tuesday at VN51,200 ($2.1) per share.