In the first half of 2017, Vinasun performed even worse as its net revenue dropped 16 percent year on year to 1.9 trillion VND and its post-tax profit declined by a third to 100 billion VNA. (Photo: tuoitre.vn) One of the most affected companies is Vinasun, which mainly operates in thesouth and has 678.6 billion VND (30.16 million USD) in charter capital.According to the economic and financial news site cafef.vn, Vinasun hasreported slower growth rates in both net revenue and profit since the two appsentered Vietnam in mid-2014.
From 2010-15, Vinasun’s net revenue increased from over 1.64 trillion VND to 4.25trillion VND. The HCM City-based taxi company also recorded that its post-taxprofit grew from 179.4 billion VND to 329.3 billion VND. In 2016, however, thecompany’s net revenue grew at a slower pace to reach 4.5 trillion VND, whileits post-tax profit fell to roughly 312 billion VND.
In the first half of 2017, Vinasun performed even worse as its net revenuedropped 16 percent year on year to 1.9 trillion VND and its post-tax profitdeclined by a third to 100 billion VND.
In the past nine months, the company also had to cut its payroll by nearly8,000 employees to about 9,200 from 17,170 in 2016. The 2016 figure representedan increase by a fifth from around 14,200 employees in 2013.
Much of the downward trend in Vinasun’s business is attributed to strongcompetition since Uber and Grab entered Vietnam in2014, cafef.vn reported.
A large number of drivers that were removed from Vinasun’s payroll have turnedto work for Uber and Grab.
Lower performance in recent years has sent shares of Vinasun on the HCM StockExchange down by 51 percent from the record high of 37,580 VND (1.67 USD) pershare in early December 2014.
Vinasun’s shares, listed under code VNS, closed on October 10 at 18,450 VND pershare.
Over time, the fall of Vinasun’s shares has caused big losses for shareholders,especially the two Singaporean investment funds TAEL Partners and Government ofSingapore (GIC), as those two funds started investing in Vinasun in 2013-14when the company was at its strongest.
In late 2013, TAEL Partners bought three million shares of Vinasun, equal to a6.9 percent stake, via a private placement at 45,000 VND per share.
In 2014, TAEL Partners increased its ownership in Vinasun to 18.3 percent,equal to more than 12.4 million shares, becoming the biggest shareholder of thecompany.
Cafef.vn reported that the total value of purchases made by TAEL Partnerswas 383 billion VND. As shares of Vinasun have dropped 51 percent in value,TAEL Partners’ investment in the taxi firm has lost 40 percent, and is nowworth 221 billion VND.
GIC bought 4.5 million shares of Vinasun in August 2014, equal to a 7.96 percentstake, for 203 billion VND, and its ownership in the taxi firm has remainedsteady since then.
At the moment, the value of VNS shares held by GIC is around 96 billion VND,down 53 percent from the initial figure.-VNA
VNA
