Vietnam conglomerate Masan’s revenue grows 3.5% in Jan-Sep, affirms SK as long-term partner

Leading Vietnamese private conglomerate Masan Group recorded a revenue of VND57.47 trillion ($2.34 billion) in the first nine months of 2023, up 3.5% year-on-year, the firm announced on Monday.

Masan, listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) as MSN, said its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) in the period declined 6% year-on-year to VND10.18 trillion ($414.2 million), with its EBITDA margin falling from 19.5% in January-September 2022 to 17.7% in the same period of 2023.

The firm’s post-tax profit shrank 65.8% year-on-year to VND1.35 trillion ($55.1 million), as the income in 2022 featured a one-off boost related to the De Heus transaction and its cafe chain Phuc Long Heritage’s valuation uplift, MSN noted. Another impactful factor was the lower profits of its high-tech unit Masan High-Tech Materials and affiliate Techcombank.

Masan highlighted that its consumer businesses, including retail chain WinCommerce, Masan Consumer Holdings, Masan MEATLife, and Phuc Long Heritage, grew their combined operating profit by 45.5% year-on-year.

The company said it has and will continue to take strategic actions to narrow the gap between its core profit and post-tax profit, by upsizing the recent Bain Capital equity transaction with long-term investors, hedge about 30% of its foreign currency debt exposure, and seek to divest from non-core assets.

“There are no hedging structure or stock borrow of MSN shares as part of the equity investment that would result in MSN share needing to be sold in the open market at the date of issuance,” MSN said in a statement. Bain Capital and potential follow-on investors are fully aligned with current MSN shareholders, the firm said.

Similarly, South Koreas’s SK Group, which spent VND11 trillion ($447.7 million) on buying shares to become a major stakeholder of MSN five years ago, is a long-term partner, MSN said.

With respect to MSN shares, both sides are working together to achieve a multi-year solution to mutually maximize their shareholder value, MSN clarified following a story in late 2022 that SK Group was looking to sell some assets in Vietnam to reinvest elsewhere.

MSN shares ended up 0.35% at VND58,000 ($2.36) on Monday.