According to the recently released financial report for the first quarter of 2024, Au Lac JSC – a major petroleum transportation company based in Ho Chi Minh City – has sold out all of its ACB shares previously held in Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank.
At the end of 2023, Au Lac owned 3.5 million ACB shares with an original cost of over 79 billion VND, equivalent to an average price of 22,610 VND per share.
Au Lac began acquiring ACB shares in the first quarter of 2022, and by the end of the second quarter of 2022, it owned over 14 million ACB shares with an original cost of 365.5 billion VND (average 26,000 VND per share), as per financial reports.
Before that, Au Lac was a long-time shareholder of the Vietnam Export-Import Joint Stock Bank (Eximbank – code: EIB). The company later sold all its EIB shares, and instead bought ACB shares.
Since the beginning of 2023, Au Lac has been gradually selling its ACB shares and has now officially sold its entire holding.
The company stated that it sold the shares to rotate its cash flow into held-to-maturity investments, cash equivalents, and long-term investments in 2023.
In terms of business results, the company’s revenue in the first quarter of this year reached nearly 373 billion VND, up 76% year-on-year, with gross profit reaching nearly 113 billion, up 104%. Financial revenue increased significantly to 10.6 billion due to nearly 9.7 billion VND in profit from trading securities. However, financial expenses increased to 19.2 billion, compared to negative 3.5 billion VND in the same period last year, as the first quarter of 2023 recorded a financial investment provision reimbursement of 46.5 billion VND.
As a result, Au Lac posted a net profit of 72.6 billion VND, up 25% year-on-year.
As of March 31, 2023, Au Lac’s total assets reached 2,445 billion VND, up 31 billion VND compared to the beginning of the year. Cash and cash equivalents doubled from the beginning of the year to 307 billion VND. The company’s liabilities amounted to 1,161 billion VND, down 3% compared to the beginning of the year. Of which, total borrowings amounted to 970 billion VND, down 9% compared to the beginning of the year and accounting for 84% of total liabilities.
In 2018, Au Lac JSC acquired 3.7 million EIB shares for 53.6 billion VND. This is a company where Ms. Ngo Thu Thuy is the Chairwoman of the Board of Directors, and she previously held the position of Senior Advisor of the Board of Directors of Eximbank in 2015. Mr. Le Minh Quoc – former Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Au Lac held the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors of Eximbank from late 2015 to May 2019. A member of the Board of Directors at that time, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Tung, was also a former member of the Board of Directors of Au Lac.
At the beginning of 2022, Ms. Ngo Thu Thuy held nearly 5% of Eximbank’s shares, but it is likely that she has also divested along with Au Lac.
