Top brewer Sabeco earns $235 mln profit in 2022

Vietnam’s leading beer maker Sabeco, owned by Thailand's ThaiBev, achieved an after-tax profit of nearly VND5,500 billion ($234.6 million) in 2022, up 40% year-on-year and the highest level since it was acquired by the Thai group at the end of 2017.

The company, which holds about 40% of the beer market in Vietnam, recorded a net revenue of nearly VND35,000 billion ($1.49 billion), up 32%.

Sabeco said that in 2022 it spent more than VND3 trillion ($127.94 million) on advertising and promotions, up 40% compared to the previous year and double 2019.

In the fourth quarter of 2022, the company recorded net revenue of VND10,029 billion ($427.69 million) and after-tax profit of VND1,076 billion ($45.89 million), up 11% and down 23% respectively.

As of December 31, 2022, its total assets reached VND34,465 billion ($1.47 billion), up 13% compared to the beginning of the year, of which investment real estate hit VND153 billion ($6.52 million), a 3.7-fold increase.

On the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, the major’s SAB stock closed at VND189,000 ($8.06) on Tuesday.

The brewer operates 26 factories across Vietnam with a total capacity of around two billion liters of beer per year.

In November, Sabeco CEO Neo Bennett said the company is accelerating its phase-two business restructuring toward becoming an international brewer.

ThaiBev, Thailand’s largest beverage maker, acquired a 53.59% stake in Sabeco from Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade for up to $4.8 billion as it sought to dominate Southeast Asia’s beverage market.

The Thai giant had plans to turn the Ho Chi Minh City-based brewer into an international beer producer, appointing Singaporean veteran Bennett as the new Sabeco CEO.

The three-stage business restructuring into an international company would take 10-12 years, he told the Vietnam M&A Forum 2022 in HCMC.

Habeco, another major brewer in Vietnam, has reported after-tax profit of VND527 billion ($22.47 million) for 2022, up 63% year-on-year and equal to 138% of its target.

The company posted net revenue at VND8,398 billion ($358.2 million), up 21% year-on-year and 27% higher than the target.