Consumer goods producer Masan Group (Masan) nearly tripled its net profit to more than VND1 trillion (nearly US$46 million) in the first six months from a year ago. The company's total revenue during the first half of the year reached more than VND19.1 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 83.8 per cent, Masan said in a statement late last week. This figure has helped the company accomplish nearly half of the year's expected revenue.
Masan said that the significant increase of its first-half earnings resulted from the growth of all business segments, which are branded food and non-alcoholic beverages, consumer animal protein products and mining.
The consumer animal protein segment was a major boost for Masan's performance during the first half of the year as this segment contributed nearly 60 per cent of the parent company's total revenue.
Revenue from sales of animal feed rose 13.8 per cent over a year to more than VND11 trillion and sales of animal feed increased 18.4 per cent year on year as the two subsidiaries were able to develop new products and focus on pig feed, which generated the highest profit margin for Masan among all animal feed products.
Masan's second-quarter sales volume in the food and beverage segment was up 14.7 per cent from that of last year, raising the company's year-on-year first-half growth rate up to 7.9 per cent.
This segment is expected to achieve a yearly growth rate of 15 per cent in 2016 as the consumer market has shown great potential for the second half of the year and Masan is preparing to launch new products such as coffee, beer and fish sauce in domestic and Thailand's markets.
Masan was also able to earn profit from Techcombank, where the consumer producer owns 19.5 per cent of the bank's capital.
Techcombank achieved a year-on-year pre-tax growth rate of nearly 54 per cent to roughly VND1.6 trillion in the first half of 2016 as the bank was able to reduce its total cost and manage its lending since the bank has been restructured in the last four years.
On the contrary, the mining industry weighed on Masan's first-half profit as the mining company Masan Resource recorded lower profits than last year.
Masan Resource saw a 45 per cent-increase in its revenue during the first six months, however, its net profit fell nearly 33 per cent over a year to VND70 billion.
Masan said that its first-half mining profit dropped as global wolfram price remained low. Masan expected that the commodity prices will rebound in the second half and the company will be able to reduce its production cost.
Based on the positive results from the first half of the year, Masan has raised its expected net profit for this year by a quarter to VND2.4 trillion from the current VND1.9 trillion.