Minh Phu Seafood tries to bring back glory days

Minh Phu Seafood Corporation intends to raise charter capital to $88 million

The financial statement has announced that the net revenue in the first quarter hit VND3.071 trillion ($135.3 million), increasing by 11 per cent on-year, and after-tax profit reached VND108.84 billion ($4.8 million), rising by 2.4 per cent on-year.

In the first quarter of 2018, revenue gained over VND30 billion ($1.32 million), decreasing by 34 per cent, VND18 billion ($0.8 million) of which came from interests on bank deposits, and VND10 billion ($0.44 million) from interest rate exchange.

Financial expenses were VND53.76 billion ($2.4 million), reduced by 33 per cent, while sales costs were VND192 billion ($8.5 million), increasing by 32 per cent on-year. Other incomes hit VND2.37 billion ($104,000), and profit from other sources also reached VND1.7 billion ($75,000), five times higher than in the same period last year.

As of March 31, 2018, the total assets of Minh Phu were VND8.321 billion ($366.6 million), 13 per cent less than on December 31, 2017. Of this, short-term assets made up 82 per cent, and the remainder was long-term assets and equity. This shows that Minh Phu’s finances are stable and safe.

Although growth in the first quarter was remarkable, it is still far from the 2018 targets, which are VND18.2 trillion ($0.8 billion) in revenue, VND990 billion ($43.6 million) in gross profit, and $800 million in export value. These are the highest goals Minh Phu has set forth in recent years.

At the annual general shareholders’ meeting this year, Minh Phu approved the plan of raising charter capital to VND2 trillion ($88.1 million) from VND700 billion ($30.84 million).

In addition to the 70 million bonus shares paid for shareholders and key people, Minh Phu will release 60 million shares for investors in order to strengthen its financial capacity and raise capital.

Although the specific time and initial price of the stock issuance have yet to be announced, it may coincide with the listing of the MPC stock on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HSX) in June 2018 after over three years on the UPCoM. It could make this stock more attractive.

This company also intends to expand Minh Phu Ca Mau Plant to the capacity of 30,000 tonnes per year in the third quarter of this year with the total investment of around VND1 trillion ($44 million).

Minh Phu owns 67.5-100 per cent in 12 subsidiaries, including two companies in the US and Japan. Besides these two major export markets, Minh Phu is also reaching out to Europe, aiming to earn 10 per cent of its total export turnover from the region this year (5 per cent in 2017).

According to the "King of Shrimp" Le Van Quang, chairman of the corporation, the national action plan for shrimp development by 2025 is a breakthrough opportunity for the Vietnamese shrimp sector to become a key and sustainable processing industry.

Additionally, the annual report of Minh Phu also indentified that the Chinese market would maintain its high-level growth due to decreases in the market’s supply resources. Since December 1, 2017, China reduced import tax on frozen shrimp to 2 per cent (from 5 per cent). Thus, China will take over Japan as the second largest import market of Vietnamese shrimp this year.

The chairman of Minh Phu is the husband of Chu Thi Binh, whose VND245 billion ($10.8 million) deposits at Eximbank were misappropriated by bank staff. Eximbank has yet to return the amount. The loss could damage the business activities of the entire family and Minh Phu Seafood Corp.