Stock of Vietnamese tech unicorn VNG hits historic low 

VNZ, the ticker of Vietnam’s first tech unicorn VNG, plunged to VND437,800 ($17.8) per share at a time on Friday, its record low since registering on the unlisted public companies market UPCoM early last year.

However, the stock gradually recovered towards the end of the trading session and closed at VND480,000 ($19.5) per share, a decline of over 6.8%.

Notably, VNZ's liquidity surged compared to previous sessions, with more than 15,100 shares changing hands for over VND7.98 billion ($324,190).

Founded in 2004 by entrepreneur Le Hong Minh, VNG is a leading internet and technology company in Vietnam. A notable milestone for the company was it being valued at $1 billion in 2014 by the World Start-up Report, becoming the first unicorn in Vietnam.

In 2019, VNG was valued at $2.2 billion by Temasek, an investment fund of the Singaporean government.

According to its financial statement, VNG reported a net revenue of VND4,314 billion ($175.26 million) in the first half of this year, up nearly 30% year-on-year. The online gaming segment accounted for 73.25% of total revenue, reaching nearly VND3,162 billion.

However, VNG reported a loss of nearly VND586 billion ($23.8 million), half of the figure in the same period of 2023 (VND1,205 billion).

The loss in H1 has reduced VNG’s undistributed after-tax profit to over VND1,402 billion ($56.96 million), down more than 50.6% against the beginning of the year.

In 2024, VNG aims for VND11,069 billion ($449.7 million) in revenue and VND150 billion ($6.09 million) in after-tax profit. After the first half, the firm had fulfilled only 39% of the year's revenue target and stayed far from its profit goal.

The company’s total assets as of June 30, 2024 hit over VND10,126 billion ($411.4 million), up more than 5.5% compared to the beginning of the year.

During H1, VNG increased long-term financial investments from VND1,181 billion to VND1,310 billion ($53.22 million), which included an investment in VTH Software Development JSC.

VTH Software was previously a subsidiary of VNG, but the unicorn signed an agreement to sell VTH shares to a group of strategic investors on October 23, 2023, and completed the transaction on May 17, 2024. After this, VNG's stake in VTH decreased from 65% to 35%, and VTH is now listed as an associated company of the corporation.

Data shows that among VNG's nine affiliated companies, only Daione posted a profit of nearly VND11 billion ($446,880), while the remaining reported losses, such as Tiki Global with a loss of VND510 billion ($20.72 million) and Telio with VND310.3 billion.

In H1, VNG raised its investments in subsidiaries from VND4,838 billion to VND6,435 billion ($361.43 million). It also increased its stake in Zion JSC, the owner of Zalopay, from 72.65% to 99.99%, with a total investment of more than VND5,141 billion ($208.86 million).

The provision for long-term financial investments in subsidiaries rose from over VND3,297 billion to VND4,778 billion ($194 million).