Two out of four major subsidiaries of Samsung in Vietnam, namely Samsung Electronics Vietnam (SEV) Thai Nguyen and Samsung Electronics Vietnam (SEV) Bac Ninh, posted a combined pre-tax profit of VND85.9 trillion (US$4 billion) in 2019.

Samsung Vietnam posts profit of nearly US$4 billion in 2019.

The figure was revealed in a recent report of the Ministry of Finance (MoF) assessing the performance of foreign-invested companies in Vietnam.

SEV Thai Nguyen and SEV Bac Ninh are also the two largest out of 967 foreign direct investment (FDI) companies in the fields of manufacturing electronic products, computers and parts in Vietnam, accounting for 48% of total revenue in the field.

In 2019, SEV Bac Ninh posted revenue of VND447 trillion (US$19.32 billion) and pre-tax profit of VND37.3 trillion (US$1.61 billion), while the corresponding figures of SEV Thai Nguyen reached VND657.6 trillion (US$28.43 billion) and VND48.5 trillion (US$2 billion).

In contrast to positive performance of Samsung Vietnam, another billion-FDI company in Vietnam Taiwanese-invested steelmaker Formosa Ha Tinh announced a staggering accumulated loss of VND25.38 trillion (US$1.09 billion) as of 2019.

Last year, Formosa posted losses of VND11.5 trillion (US$497.35 million), 4.2-fold increase compared to the same period of the previous year.

More than half of FDI firms in Vietnam suffering losses

The MoF’s report noted 12,455 FDI companies, or 55% of total in Vietnam, suffering losses in 2019 with a total amount of VND131.44 trillion (US$5.68 billion), but their combined revenue rose by 12.7% year-on-year to VND846.8 trillion (US$36.63 billion).

Fields and sectors having companies with losses in two consecutive years are production of steel and metal’ distribution and production of petroleum and chemical products; telecommunication and software development.

As of late 2019, Vietnam is home to 25,054 FDI companies, of which 22,603 are providing sufficient financial data for evaluation.

Total revenue of FDI companies in Vietnam stood at over VND7,100 trillion (US$307.12 billion), up VND720 trillion (US$31.14 billion) against the previous year.

Their pre-tax profit in 2019 reached VND387 trillion (US$16.73 billion), up 29.4 trillion (US$1.27 billion) year-on-year.