Telecommunications, IT and retail firms took the lead in terms of profitability last year on the list of Profit500 – the top 500 firms with the highest profits in Viet Nam.

The ranking, announced by Viet Nam Report Company on Tuesday, revealed that the industries witnessed high profit growth despite accounting for a small number on the list, with 3.6 per cent and 1.2 per cent of the total companies, respectively.

Experts believe that the IT sector will continue seeing strong growth in the future.

In addition, the food and beverage sector also showed high business results, both in terms of the number of firms on the list and highest average pre-tax profit.

The construction, building materials and real estate sector has the highest number of firms in the ranking, accounting for 17.4 per cent of the total. It was followed by the financial and food and beverage sectors, with 11.4 per cent and 10 per cent, respectively.

Most of businesses on the list reported increasing revenue and profit in the first nine months of the year and showed optimism in terms of prospects and profitability next year.

More than 26 per cent of the surveyed firms believed that instability in the economy’s growth had been one of the biggest challenges to profitability of businesses this year. Enterprises paid attention to climate change and disasters in the past two years, impacting their production and business.

Viet Nam Report’s survey also said over a half of the local companies believed that sales in the first three quarters of the year had the most impact on their revenue, and not prices or spending. Firms paid attention to human resources, sales and marketing, and IT. Some 70 per cent of businesses said investing in human resources brought positive results in their profit.

Firms planned to focus on applying IT and automation as well as developing human resources for sustainable growth next year.

They expected that IT would have the highest growth in the future, followed by construction, real estate, healthcare, retail and trade centres.

The Profit 500 ranking aims to honour Vietnamese firms with high profitability and potential to become key pillars for the country’s future development. These firms have also contributed to promoting Viet Nam’s brand name in the international business community.

The ranking has independent assessments based on criteria of return on total assets, return on equity, return on revenue, pre-tax profit and revenue. In addition, it also determined businesses’ reputation on the media and labour scale.

The award ceremony is on November 23 in Ha Noi. – VNS

1.         Viettel Group

2.         Samsung Electronics Viet Nam Co Ltd

3.         Viet Nam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam)

4.         Viet Nam Dairy Products Joint Stock Company (Vinamilk)

5.         PetroVietnam Gas Joint Stock Corporation

6.         Viet Nam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (Vietinbank)

7.         Truong Hai Auto Corporation

8.         Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Viet Nam (Vietcombank)

9.         Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Investment and Development of Viet Nam

10.   Hoa Phat Group Joint Stock Company