A Long Chau drug store in HCM City's District 7. Medical and pharmaceutical sales are expected to triple to VND1.5 trillion in 2020. — Photo cafef.vn

Second-quarter revenue is expected to drop 15-20 per cent from the first quarter due to COVID-19, FPT Retail Chairwoman Nguyen Bach Diep said on Thursday.

Revenue in the first three months rose 1.9 per cent on-year to VND4.14 trillion (US$179 million) while profit fell 44.7 per cent on-year to VND35.6 billion.

FPT Retail performed well in the first two months of the year, but the coronavirus outbreak in March stalled the business, the chairwoman said at the annual shareholders’ meeting.

In April, FPT Retail closed 170 or a third of all FPT Shop stores across the country due to the social distancing order, she said.

The stores were re-opened in May but demand dropped as customers’ income was affected, leading to lower consumption of non-key products such as phones and electronic devices, Diep said.

Poor performance in the first three months made FPT Retail lower its revenue forecast by 8 per cent on-year to VND15.32 trillion in 2020.

Full-year pre-tax profit was predicted to decline a fifth to VND220 billion. The company offered shareholders a maximum 15 per cent cash dividend for 2020.

ICT device sale revenue is forecast to drop 14 per cent on-year to VND13.82 trillion in 2020. The figure in 2019 was VND16.1 trillion.

The pharmaceutical store chain Long Chau was expected to pick up during the year.

In 2020, FPT Retail plans to open 150 new Long Chau drug stores in the country to raise the total to 220 and upgrade technological system to cut costs and improve the benefits to consumers.

The drug store segment is expected to triple its revenue in 2019 to VND1.5 trillion at the end of this year.

Revenue of the digital retain chain FPT Shop was VND3.85 trillion and that of pharmaceutical store chain Long Chau was VND239 billion in the first quarter of the year.

FPT Retail shares (HoSE: FRT) soared 5.2 per cent to end Friday at VND26,200 apiece. — VNS