Pham Nhat Vuong, Vingroup Chairman of the Board of Directors, speaks at the annual general meeting of shareholders (AGMs) held on Thursday in Ha Noi. Vuong said its tourism arm Vinpearl was most ravaged by the disease. — VNA/VNS Photo Van Giap

Conglomerate Vingroup JSC plans to earn VND145 trillion (US$6.2 billion) in revenue this year, up 12 per cent year-on-year.

The information was released during the group’s annual general meeting of shareholders (AGMs) held on Thursday in Ha Noi.

Post-tax profit is expected to decrease 35 per cent to reach VND5 trillion.

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Vingroup Chairman of the Board of Directors Pham Nhat Vuong said its tourism arm Vinpearl was most ravaged by the disease.

“However, the group still seeks solutions to stimulate domestic demand for tourism, especially inbound because we could not offer services for foreign clients during the pandemic,” he said.

“According to statistics, Viet Nam greets 80 million domestic visitors and 18 million foreign visitors each year,” Vuong said.

“Vingroup chairman said if the disease was controlled and people could not travel abroad, domestic tourism would be strongly boosted. Therefore, Vinpearl can partially offset the damage caused by COVID-19,” Vuong said.

Earlier, in a conference with businesses of Ha Noi on April 16, Vingroup said that during the disease outbreak, Vinpearl stopped 70 per cent of its hotel services and ceased operation of 100 per cent of its entertainment services.

In the period, revenue from tourism and entertainment plunged. The group still maintained a hotel staff of more than 18,000 and must ensure income for all of them.

Industrial real estate will be one of Vingroup’s main segments in the future, Vuong said.

Vinhomes Joint Stock Company (Vinhomes), real estate arm of Vingroup, has started to implement some projects in Hai Phong and other localities. Some projects have been licensed for site clearance, so construction can be gradually started by the end of next year.

The VinFast automobile manufacturing complex has been converted into an industrial park managed by Vinhomes with a total area of ​​335 hectares.

The group has decided to delay the investment project in Lach Huyen Port because it is incapable of arranging funds for the project at present.

For the industrial segment, Vingroup Chairman Vuong said VinFast is researching new markets for export besides existing markets.

“We aim to focus on the US as this is one of the most fastidious markets in the world, if you can penetrate this market, to some extent, we can be able to reach others,” he said.

“With the automobile segment, Vingroup determines to invest heavily and drastically and accept to compensate for losses from three to five years, with the goal of increasing market share,” Vuong said.

At the meeting, the Board of Directors agreed on the plan not to pay dividend for 2019, using all the remaining profits to invest in business. This is the second consecutive year that Vingroup retained its profit and has not paid a dividend.

The last time it paid a dividend was in June 2018.

In order to proactively cope with the instabilities caused by COVID-19, the group will stick with austerity measures, strictly control the expansion of spending and investment, optimise operational efficiency in existing fields. — VNS