HÀ NỘI – A number of listed companies risk being forced to leave the stock market after they reported losses for three consecutive years.

Decree No 58/2012/NĐ-CP, issued in July 2012, stipulates that securities shall be delisted if the listing company suffers a loss for three consecutive years, or total accumulated losses in the most recent audited financial statements exceed paid-up charter capital.

Seven companies which incurred losses in 2015 and 2016 continued to report losses in the last quarter of 2017 and their shares are in jeopardy of being removed from the stock market this year.

They include the Việt Nam National General Export – Import SJC No 1 (TH1), Hưng Long Mineral and Building Material JSC (HKL), Bạch Đằng TMC Construction Investment JSC (BHT), Textbook Printing JSC in HCM City (SAP), Sông Đà Electrical Engineering JSC (SDE), Simco Sông Đà JSC (SDA) and Saigontourist Transport Corporation (STT).

Despite earning a profit of VNĐ1.5 billion in the last quarter of 2017, Sông Đà Electrical Engineering still incurred a loss over VNĐ234 billion (US$10.3 million) for the whole year, a sharp increase compared to losses of VNĐ4.2 billion in 2016 and VNĐ9.8 billion in 2015.

Meanwhile, TH1, owned by “Shark” Trần Anh Vương, one of the four sharks in the reality show Shark Tank Việt Nam, reported a loss of over VNĐ142 billion (US$6.3 million) in 2017, much higher than its target of VNĐ10 billion loss for the whole year. It also reported cumulative losses of VNĐ268 billion in the two previous years.

Saigontourist Transport posted a loss of VNĐ19 billion last year which was also higher than the 2016’s loss of just VNĐ5 billion. The company attributed its poor performance to other expenses incurred during the tax inspections of the fiscal years of 2007-15, while taxi tax revenue fell.

Meanwhile, the 2017 profit target of VNĐ2 billion in 2017 of Hưng Long Mineral was cracked when the company announced a loss of over VNĐ13 billion due to a sharp decline in sales. In 2015 and 2016, KHL reported losses of VNĐ2.74 billion and VNĐ57.3 billion, respectively.

Similarly, Bạch Đằng TMC Construction incurred another loss of VNĐ11.7 billion in 2017 though the company set a profit target of VNĐ2.5 billion.

Textbook Printing and Simco Sông Đà also announced losses for three consecutive years in 2017, but their losses declined sharply to around VNĐ1 billion each.

Việt Nam Ocean Shipping JSC (VOS) has yet to release the 2017 financial statements but it has reported losses for 11 consecutive quarters with cumulative losses mounting up VNĐ1 trillion, eating out 74 per cent of its charter capital.

On the other end of spectrum, Sài Sòn Cement JSC (SCJ) and Sông Đà 7 JSC (SD7) returned to profitability in 2017 after two years of incurring losses. This will help these two companies remain listed in the stock exchanges. – VNS