Vietnam Gas Corporation (PVGas) reports a drop of 78 per cent in profit for the last quarter of 2015. — Photo thuongmaicongnghiep.com

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — The slump in oil prices has strongly influenced business result of Vietnam Gas Corporation (PVGas) in the last quarter of 2015, reporting a drop of 78 per cent in profit.

PVGas reported a sale of VND17.26 trillion (US$770 million) in Q4, a reduction of 9.2 per cent over the same period last year. Meanwhile, cost of sales increased 27 per cent to reach VND492 billion ($21.9 million).

The company earned over VND1 trillion ($44.6 million) in net profit in the quarter. Compared with the profit of VND4.8 trillion for the same quarter last year, they lost 78 per cent in profits. Thus, for the whole of 2015, PVGas earned VND64.29 trillion ($2.86 billion) in net revenue, a reduction of 13 per cent compare to the previous year. Its net profit of the whole year was VND8.534 trillion ($380.6 million), down 38.5 per cent compared to the results of 2014.

As of the end of 2015, the total assets of PVGas reached VND56.7 trillion ($2.53 billion), an increase of more than 5 per cent compared with the balance in the beginning of the year.

Based in Vung Tau-city in the south of Viet Nam, PVGas was one of Viet Nam's largest State-run companies, which runs integrated operations, from drilling for gas through to marketing, and controls nearly 70 per cent of the domestic market for liquefied petroleum gas. It has a market capitalisation of about $9 billion, making it one of the largest publicly traded Vietnamese companies.

The company is actively pursuing a policy of collaborating with foreign companies, and in June 2014 signed a liquefied natural gas trading contract with Royal Dutch Shell.

Yesterday each GAS share ended at 41,700 ($1.8) on the HCM Stock Exchange. — VNS