Major Vietnam gasoline retailers post contrasting Q2 results

Two major Vietnamese gasoline retailers posted vastly contrasting Q2 results with one making profit after suffering a loss last year and the other seeing its profit drop drastically.

Petrolimex, the country's biggest gasoline retailer by market share, reported after-tax profits of VND850 billion ($35.8 million) in Q2/2023, while it made a loss of VND141 billion ($5.94 million) in the same period last year.

The corporation recorded Q2 net revenues of VND65.75 trillion ($2.77 billion), down 22% year-on-year, according to its latest financial statement.

Petrolimex said that the better Q2 results were expected because the Russia-Ukraine conflict had cast a dark energy shadow last year, affecting supplies and prices.

It said domestic supply of petrol and oil has been quite stable since, with traders efficiently carrying out imports and purchases of gasoline and oil as planned. In addition, the group's business activities in other fields were improved over the same period, helping to increase profits.

In the first six months of the year, Petrolimex recorded net revenues of VND133.2 trillion ($5.6 billion), down 12% year-on-year, but after-tax profits rose 3.9 times of VND1.52 trillion ($63.9 million).

Petrolimex has set total revenue target of VND190 trillion ($8 billion) for the year, down 37.5%; and after-tax profits of VND3.23 trillion ($135.99 million), up 42.2%.

As of June 30, Petrolimex's assets stood at VND80.82 trillion ($3.4 billion), up 8.5% compared to the beginning of the year, with cash and cash equivalents at VND16.24 trillion ($684.3 million) and inventories at VND15.37 trillion ($647.4 million).

On the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange, Petrolimex (PLX) shares closed Friday at VND40,300 ($1.7).

In contrast, PVOil, the country's second largest gasoline retailer, posted Q2 net revenues of VND22.32 trillion ($940.4 million), down 27% year-on-year; and after-tax profits of VND189.5 billion ($7.98 million), down 63%.

The company said that as its oil sales increased, but the average price of Brent DTD oil in the first six months of the year reached $79.8/barrel, down 26% compared to the same period last year (when gasoline prices fluctuated the most in many years), its Q2 profits plunged.

In the first half of this year, PV OIL reported net revenues of VND42.86 trillion ($1.8 billion), down 20%, and after-tax profit of VND455.1 billion ($19.2 million), down 43%.

For 2023, PV OIL has targeted consolidated revenues of VND50 trillion ($2.1 billion) and pre-tax profits of VND600 billion ($25.3 million).

At the end of Q2, the company's assets value reached VND30.34 trillion ($1.28 billion), up 5.3% compared to the beginning of the year, with cash and cash equivalents at VND2.13 trillion ($89.8 million) and inventories at VND3.75 trillion ($158.1 million).

The firm, registered on the unlisted public company market UPCoM as OIL, closed Friday at VND11,200 ($0.47) per share.

In Vietnam, Petrolimex holds more than 50% of the retail gasoline market share, while PVOil has over 20%.

Petrolimex has 43 member units directly trading gasoline nationwide with 5,500 gas stations, while PVOil manages more than 600 gasoline stations and around 3,000 agents.