OGC announces Q3 profit

Real estate developer Ocean Group Joint Stock Company (OGC) reports VND1.51 trillion (US$67 million) in profit in the third quarter.- Photo vneconomy.com

The company said in a shareholders' general meeting in Ha Noi that the profit for the first nine months was VND1.4 trillion ($62.3 million). In July, the group reported a loss of VND1.37 billion ($62,844) for the first two quarters.

Since July 2015, the company has been at the warning list of the HCM City Stock Exchange due to the losses in 2014 and the first six months of 2015.

Without a profit for the last half of 2015, it would be delisted from the local stock market. So, one of the key elements in the meeting was to select an auditor, said Le Quang Thu, the group's president.

The meeting said profit of Q3 was from selling the Blue Star Company, which owned a ring-road land lot in the southeast part of Tran Duy Hung Road in Ha Noi.

Le Huy Giang, CEO of the company, said OGC will see more profit in the fourth quarter from the sale of apartments from Le Van Luong Project and the cash flow from the restructuring of financial investments.

OGC has faced difficulties and losses since its chairman Ha Van Tham, who was also chairman of the Ocean Bank, was arrested in 2014, for serious violations of Viet Nam's laws on credit quality of credit institutions.

Last year, OGC suffered a loss of VND2.52 trillion ($112 million), and the company's shareholders lost VND2.2 trillion ($98 million).

Ocean Bank was then taken over by the State Bank of Viet Nam while OGC must sell many of its assets to solve the problem.

So far, it sold Ocean Retail JSC, Blue Star Company. It also sold its 50 per cent stake in Lega Fashion House in HCM City.

In the meeting, CEO Giang said they would not sell the project in 25 Tran Khanh Du, which would make a profit for 2016, adding that the group's BOT project of Ha Noi - Bac Giang Highway would be expected to open to traffic on December 31, six months earlier than planned and start receiving toll fees in the second quarter of 2016.

Also, the meeting discussed bigger remuneration for the board in 2015. Specifically, the board's remuneration could be increased to VND2.04 billion ($90,500). The remuneration last year was VND420 million ($18,600).

According to the financial website cafef.vn, all the resolutions of the meeting were passed at the end of the meeting.

OGC shares ended down 4.8 per cent at VND4,000 ($0.17) each on the HCM Stock Exchange yesterday.