Cash helps enterprises easily handle problems if the business becomes worse and it gives enterprises more choices when seeking investment opportunities in the future.

Nhip Cau Dau Tu names four ‘cash kings’ with cash amounts accounting for 41 percent of total asset value.

The Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV, UpCom) is the biggest cash holder among listed companies. At the end of Q1 2020, ACV had VND478.7 billion in cash and cash equivalents, mostly bank demand deposits.

While many businesses have had to borrow money to maintain operation during the Covid-19 crisis, some others have tens of trillions of dong in cash.

As of the end of Q1, ACV total assets had reached VND58.742 trillion, 56 percent of which was in cash. Thanks to the large bank deposit amount, it got VND538.8 billion in interest, up by 45.1 percent compared with Q1 2019.

Its Q1 post-tax profit decreased by 22.4 percent compared with the same period last year, but it was still an encouraging result as it was among a few enterprises under the management of CMSC that was not impacted much by the pandemic.

PVGAS (GAS, HOSE) had total assets of VND65.4 trillion as of the end of Q1, including VND31.177 trillion.

Like ACV, PVGAS had a large deposit at banks. At the end of Q1, it had VND25.9 trillion worth of 3-12-month term deposit, an increase of 4 percent over the beginning of 2020. As such, cash accounted for 47.6 percent of the company’s total assets at the end of Q1.

The deposits brought interest of VND364.6 billion, a slight decrease of 5.5 percent compared with the same period last year.

Regarding business performance, the company reported post-tax profit of VND2.35 trillion in Q1, down by 23 percent.

The ‘Dairy King’ Vinamilk has VND15.748 trillion, including cash and cash equivalents, mostly bank deposits with interest rates of between 7.1 percent and 8.65 percent per annum.

The cash amount (including cash and cash equivalents) of Vinamilk accounted for nearly 34.2 percent of the company's total assets as of March 31.

Vinamilk’s consolidated post-tax profit reached VND2.7 trillion in Q1, a slight decrease compared with the same period last year because the operation cost increased more rapidly than revenue. However, bank deposits brought VND255 billion in interest, up by 56 percent.

The large amount of cash helped Petrolimex (PLX, HOSE), which holds 60 percent of the petroleum product distribution market share, ease the impact of Covid-19 and oil crisis.

The company reported a loss of VND1.8 trillion in Q1. As of March 31, Petrolimex had VND15.04 trillion in cash and cash equivalents, which accounted for 27.3 percent of its total assets. 

Thanh Lich

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