Vinafood II still owes over 600 billion VND in debt

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  – Vinafood II has recently corrected its financial report for Q4/2023, in which the debt of over 600 billion VND owed by Cuba and the repayment to the Vietnamese government has not been written off as in the previous report.
  
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  – In fact, this debt does not affect the financial situation of Vinafood II as the company is only an intermediary in the payment between the two sides.
  

Southern Food Corporation – Joint Stock Company (Vinafood II – UPCoM: VSF) has recently corrected its financial report for Q4/2023, with the company’s total assets “dropping” nearly 2,300 billion VND, instead of over 2,900 billion VND as reported earlier.

The reason for this change lies in the item of receivables from Cuba, 625 billion VND, and the repayment to the Vietnamese government with an equivalent amount – which has not been removed from the company’s balance sheet.

So by the end of 2023, Vinafood II has still not resolved the long-standing debt accumulated since the 1990s.

From 1993 to 1996, when Vinafood II was still a state-owned enterprise, the company acted as an intermediary for Vietnam’s rice aid to Cuba worth 25.6 million USD – equivalent to 608 billion VND at the end of 2022 – and 625 billion VND at the end of 2023.

According to the records, this is the amount that Vinafood II has to collect from Cuba, but at the same time it is also the amount that the company has to repay to the Vietnamese government at the same time.

In fact, this debt does not affect the financial situation of Vinafood II as the company is only an intermediary in the payment between the two sides. Normally, if an outstanding receivable cannot be collected, the company must create provisions for bad debts and record them as management expenses. With this receivable, Vinafood II does not need to create provisions, thus it does not affect the company’s business results.

However, while still “hanging” a debt of over 600 billion VND receivable/payable, the liquidity ratios of Vinafood II will be negatively affected.

Vinafood II’s financial report after adjustment does not change the business results compared to the previous report of the company.

As of the end of 2023, Vinafood II still accumulated losses of 2,778 billion VND. This is the result after a long period of losses since the company’s equitization in 2018. Vinafood II only made a profit in the past two years (2022 – 2023) with a very small profit compared to the charter capital of 5,000 billion VND or the billion-dollar revenue of the company.

Net profit (billion VND) of Vinafood II from 2018, when the company started equitization

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The largest loss of the company in 2018 (nearly 1,500 billion VND) was the result of financial processing for previous losses, helping the company to be equitized and registered for trading on UPCoM.

In 2018, Vinafood II set aside nearly 1,300 billion VND for difficult-to-recover debts from related parties, of which more than half were for handling falsely declared assets at its subsidiary, Tra Vinh Food Company. The violations at Tra Vinh Food Company have been dealt with and a court decision was enforced in early 2023, while the entire inventory shortage (actual physical count compared to the amount in the books) has been fully reserved by Vinafood II since 2018 when the violations were discovered.

Since its equitization in 2018, despite achieving annual revenues of over 16,000 billion VND, Vinafood II has continuously incurred losses, or achieved thin profits, due to low profit margins, characteristics of the rice export industry.

Despite the losses, Vinafood II’s VSF shares are still trading around 38,000 VND per share after a “shock” increase in the past six months from below par value.

VSF shares started to experience a “shock” increase from July 2023 (source: VnDirect)

The company currently owns 4 land plots in Ho Chi Minh City, including two plots with an area of tens of thousands of square meters in District 8 and District 6. The value of these 4 land plots is recorded at cost, approved since 2017, which is 561 billion VND.

The value of land use rights and land use plans may change in the future, when there are official opinions from the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee – Vinafood II’s financial report stated.

Currently, in addition to the state’s stake of 51.43%, Vinafood II also has a strategic shareholder, T&T Group of Chairman Do Quang Hien (Hien as referred to), with a 25% ownership ratio. Hien has spent more than 1,200 billion VND to become a strategic shareholder of Vinafood II since the company’s IPO in 2018. Up to now, based on the market price, Hien’s investment is valued at 4,750 billion VND.