Vietnam Report and the online newspaper Vietnamnet have announced the list of the 500 most profitable companies (PROFIT500) in Việt Nam in 2022. Among the companies, the ten at the top comprise PetroVietnam, Samsung Electronics Vietnam Thái Nguyên, Hòa Phát Group, Viettel, Vietcombank, Techcombank, Vietnam Electricity, VietinBank, Military Bank and Agribank.

The ten most profitable private companies, meanwhile, consist of Hòa Phát Group, Techcombank, VPBank, Vinamilk, Asia Commercial Bank, Masan Group, HDBank, Việt Nam International Bank, Mobile World Investment and Masan Consumer.

Realty companies accounted for 22.2 per cent of the total number of companies on the list. Financial companies came next with 13.7 per cent and companies operating in the food-beverage-tobacco sector followed with 10.7 per cent.

Foreign direct investment companies took the lead in terms of return on assets (ROA) with 11 per cent, dropping from 12.4 per cent last year. Companies operating in the public sector came last with 7.8 per cent. They had ROA of 8.4 per cent in 2021.

About two-thirds of companies on PROFIT500 had their revenues surpassing the levels prior to the pandemic. Of those companies, only 6.2 per cent fell short of their pre-pandemic profits.

Over two-thirds of the companies underscored inflationary pressures and global politico-economic instability as the biggest issues holding them back. Other issues include supply chain disruption, weakening purchasing power and tight labour supply.

Up to 96.1 per cent of the companies faced mounting input costs, which were predominantly caused by unfavourable interest rates, exchange rates, fuel prices, international logistic costs and tax policies.

The mounting costs were expected to hold steady until late 2023, eroding firms’ profits. The firms have taken various measures to deal with the situation.

Notably, measures to develop high-quality staff were employed by 69.6 per cent of the firms. Other measures include cost cutting, digital transformation and product R&D.

About 74 per cent of the firms said they had reached over 50 per cent of annual profit targets and 78.3 per cent expected to grow by up to 6.5 per cent this year. Roughly 73.9 per cent had a positive outlook for their profitability.

The firms called on the Government to implement six favourable policies to support their growth. The policies involve digital transformation, tax cuts, macro-economic stabilisation, financial packages and administrative simplification. — VNS