PAN Group reports positive performance

Speaking at the annual general shareholders’ meeting on April 22, general director Nguyen Khac Hai said that PAN Group generated VND 2.75 trillion ($121.13 million) in revenue and VND336 ($14.78 million) in after-tax profit in 2016 amid the country’s deepening climate change issues.

He attributed the positive results to the firm’s drastic shift to technology-intensive productsthat have good resistance to climate change as well as better management in the core agricultural and food industry sectors.

In the agricultural sector, PAN Group has established PAN Farm JSC with the total chartered capital of VND1 trillion ($44 million) last year. The group then transferred its investments in agricultural companies, including Vinaseeds (NSC) and PAN Saladbowl JSC (PSB), to PAN Farm. NSC has contributed 48 per cent of its revenue and 50 per cent of its profits to the group’s total business results.

Meanwhile, PAN and its Japanese partners joined hands to establish PSB in the first quarter of 2016. PSB specialises in setting up greenhouses and developing premium vegetable and flower products for the domestic and foreign markets. PSB will expand its flower farming area to 200 hectares in the next five years.

In 2016, the group’s food processing arm PAN Food established PAN Food Manufacturing (PFM) with the chartered capital of VND200 billion ($8.8 million) to research and develop new food products. Under the plan, PAN Food will establish a network of distribution channels to launch PFM’s new products, like gummy candy Huro, Pan Food moon cakes, and Bon Ami biscuits.

PAN Food also concluded some merger and acquisition deals to raise its ownership in Aquatex Bentre (ABT) to 72.82 per cent, LAF (Lafooco) to 80.52 per cent, BBC (Bibica) to 43.7 per cent as well as acquired 22.4 per cent of the shares of 584 Nha Trang Seafood JSC.

During the year, PAN Group completed the transfer of its 80 per cent share in utility services PAN Services to Nihon Housing Limited. The group’s withdrawal serves its strategy to focus on agriculture and food business.