HCM CITY --  Shareholders of the Masan Group Corporation approved many ambitious targets for 2018 at the company’s annual general meeting on Tuesday.

The company expects to achieve revenues of between VNĐ45.15 trillion (US$1.99 billion) and VNĐ 47 trillion ($2.07 billion) this year, over 20 per cent higher than last year.

The net profit after tax attributable to equity holders of the company is targeted to increase by 55-85 per cent to VNĐ3.4-4 trillion ($149.8-176.2 million).

Speaking at the meeting, the company’s chairman, Nguyễn Đăng Quang, said the ambitious goals had been set based on the positive results achieved last year and in the first quarter of this year thanks to changes in business strategies.

Last year the corporation’s after-tax profit attributable to equity holders was VNĐ3.103 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 11.1 per cent.

In the first quarter of this year, though net revenues remained at a rather steady VNĐ8.274 trillion, EBITDA rose by 39.9 per cent year-on-year to VNĐ2.606 trillion.

The net profit attributable to equity holders increased by 3.4 times to VNĐ816 billion during the period.

To achieve those results, Quang said member companies had made several drastic changes to their business strategies, and cited Masan Consumer as a typical example.

He said the company stopped trade promotions and spent the first half of the year clearing out stocks with distributors and retailers.

The company started communicating to customers again by revitalising power brands through effective communication, and scaled up its technological platform so as to be able to track inventories with distributors, he said.

“More importantly, we stopped wasting our time reading market research and guessing what out consumers want and need, and spent most of our time in the field and market to understand first-hand out consumers’ big unmet needs instead.”

To realise the double digit growth targets set for this year and the years to come, member companies of Masan Group would continue their own renovation strategies, he said.

Indeed, Masan Resources would seek strategic partnerships to accelerate transformation from a ‘miner’ into a value-added, global downstream tungsten industrial player, he revealed.

This would de-risk the business and enable the company to produce stronger cash flows across commodity cycles, he said. Its turnover is projected to be VNĐ8 trillion this year.

Masan Nutri-Science seeks to focus on increasing the diversity of products made to meet the demand of consumers at home and abroad, to expand its market share and, together with the Masan Group, to achieve US$10 billion in turnover and $800 million in pre-tax profit by 2020. 

Techcombank’s strategic plan this year is to further invest in technology in order to offer its services to everyone. This investment is expected to position the bank to grow efficiently for the foreseeable future on the back of financial inclusion.

At the meeting, Masan executives said the company had earned VNĐ1 trillion from selling Techcombank stocks before the bank launched initiative offerings, and explained that it had sold the stocks because the corporation’s ownership rate at the bank must be reduced from 31 per cent to under 20 per cent as required by the State Bank of Việt Nam.

Masan shareholders also approved several other important proposals, one of which was an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) for staff of the company and its subsidiaries to recognise their contributions last year.

The money raised from the issuance will be used to increase charter capital, for business requirements and supplementing working capital.

Other proposals like payment of dividends to shareholders for 2018, making certain amendments to the Company’s Charter and issuance of internal regulations on corporate governance were also approved by shareholders.

Masan said it also plans to develop healthcare products through the acquisition of companies in the industry. — VNS