Livestock major Dabaco profit falls 81% to $6.4 mln in 2022

Vietnam's leading livestock company Dabaco reported an after-tax profit of VND150 billion ($6.4 million) in 2022, down 81% year-on-year, and only reaching 16% of its target.

The corporation, listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchanges as DBC, earned net revenue of VND12,269 billion ($523.2 million), up 13% year-on-year.

"2022 was an unprecedentedly difficult year during the 26 years of building and developing the corporation. For a company operating in an entire closed value chain, it was inevitable for us to be affected by the pandemic and market volatility," chairman Nguyen Nhu So said at Dabaco's first meeting of the year last week.

In the fourth quarter of 2022, DBC recorded net revenue of VND2,930 billion ($125 million), down 4% year-on-year. It reported a loss of VND79 billion ($3.37 million), compared to VND111 billion the same period last year.

The corporation's gross profit margin narrowed from 12% to 5%, resulting in a 59% decrease in gross profit to approximately VND150 billion ($6.4 million).

Besides its core business, DBC's other profits also dropped significantly by 98%, from nearly VND27 billion (1.15 million) to less than VND500 million ($21,300).

At the end of 2022, DBC's total assets stood at VND12.5 trillion ($533 million), up 16% compared to the beginning of the year. Of this, cash and inventories hit more than VND1.2 trillion and nearly VND4.8 trillion ($204.7 million), up 46% and 13%, respectively.

Notably, the cost of construction in progress was nearly three times higher than last year at nearly VND1.4 trillion ($59.7 million). The reason for the increase was mainly because DBC has promoted investment in a number of breeding projects, including the Dabaco Phu Tho pig breeding project phase 2 (nearly VND204 billion or $8.7 million) and the Thanh Hoa pig breeding project (VND780 billion).

On the other hand, it divested from projects in other fields like a hotel in Danang city and Lac Ve Career Center in Bac Ninh province.

DBC's liabilities increased by 26% to more than VND7.7 trillion ($328.4 million), mainly due to a large proportion of short-term payables to sellers and loans worth more than VND2 trillion and nearly VND4.6 billion, up 54% and up 40%, respectively.