Vietnam Industrial Parks InfoGate ! Industrial Zones ! Export Processing Zones ! Business in brief 6 Jan 2012

Baskin-Robbins, a sister chain of Dunkin’ Donuts, announced today that it has signed a master franchise agreement with Blue Star Food Corp., a Vietnamese food manufacturing company. The agreement calls for about 50 Baskin-Robbins restaurants to be opened in Vietnam over the next several years. The first three stores under the agreement open this week in Ho Chi Minh City. With the opening in Vietnam, Baskin-Robbins said it now has more than 6,600 locations in nearly 50 countries, including about 2,000 in the Asia-Pacific region. Both Baskin-Robbins and Dunkin’ Donuts are operated by Dunkin’ Brands Group Inc. of Canton.

Vietcombank, Vietnam’s fourth-largest lender by assets, booked a gross profit in 2011 of 5.7 trillion dong ($271 million), up 4 percent from the previous year, Chairman Nguyen Hoa Binh told reporters on Friday. Vietcombank, or the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam, had total assets of 369.2 trillion dong at the end of last year, up 20.3 percent from 2010, a statement from the bank said. Its gross profit target for 2012 was 6.5 trillion dong, a 14 percent increase over last year, the statement said.

A new decree has been issued amending the Law on value added tax. From March, advance payments on securities will no longer be subject to VAT. In addition, VAT will also be exempted on loans for margin trading. It is hoped the regulation will end the dispute between the securities watchdog and securities companies about the tax.

The government recently issued Decree No. 122/2011/ND-CP, stipulating that interest incomes and gain from sale of foreign currencies of businesses will be subject to income tax. Specifically, businesses must pay taxes on interest income from deposits at credit institutions, interests earned from lending activity under any forms, credit guarantee fees and other charges in the loan contracts. Many other types of business income will also be taxed, including gain from capital or securities transfers (partly or wholly). In addition, this decree specified several types of tax-exempt income. The new Decree takes effect from on March 1, 2012 to amend and supplement some articles of Decree No. 124/2008/ND-CP providing details and guidelines on the implementation of some articles of the Law on Enterprise Income Tax recently issued by the Government.

Eximbank (EIB) plans to pay a cash dividend to its shareholders at a rate of 14 per cent on February 29, the Vietnam Securities Depository announced. The local bank expects to spend VND1.73 trillion (US$82.4 million) on the payout. January 16 will be the last day for shareholders to register to participate in the payment.

Property developer Hoang Anh Gia Lai Co (HAG) successfully issued 500 million corporate bonds late last month, raising VND500 billion (US$23.8 million), the company announced last week. The three-year bonds will pay an interest rate of 18 per cent in the first year and flexible rates after that. HAG chairman Doan Nguyen Duc ranked No 2 in the richest people on the Vietnam stock market in 2011.

PetroVietnam Engineering Consultancy Co (PVE)‘s revenue in 2011 reached VND689.5 billion (US$32.8 million), 2 per cent over its target. Its gross profit reached VND78.5 billion ($3.7 million), up 10.6 per cent. Its contribution to the State budget was VND58 billion ($2.8 million). PVE expects to earn VND860 billion ($41 million) in revenue and VND95.7 billion ($4.5 million) in profit this year, contributing VND63 billion ($3 million) to the State coffer.

In 2011 Vietnam’s vegetable oils industry increased its export volume by 50 percent and its export value was up by 51 percent compared to the previous year, announced the Ministry of Industry and Trade. The country exports vegetable oils mainly to Cambodia, China and Australia. To gain this result, businesses dealt with numerous challenges such as fluctuated prices of input materials and difficulties forecasting production trends, noted the Vietnam Vegetable Oils Industry Corporation. Besides, the packing price increased 32 percent, driving up export prices, and high interest rates also effected businesses’ profits.

Mekong delta provinces have attracted an additional US$126 million in foreign direct investment (FDI), bringing the total FDI capital poured into the region to nearly US$10 billion. The Foreign Investment Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment said there are 611 operating FDI projects in the region. Long An province takes the lead with 371 projects capitalized at US$3.56 billion. Investors inject money mainly into processing and manufacturing industries. The agency said provinces in the region are paying attention to improving infrastructure developing services and support industries and accelerating administrative reforms and human resource training. They have also focused on boosting investment promotion to lure more investors.

Dung Quat Oil Refinery in the central province of Quang Nam plans to turn out and sell around 6 million tons of products this year. The country’s first oil refinery has set to earn more than VND108 trillion in revenues and contribute over VND15 trillion to the state budget. Since the refinery’s overall maintenance in mid Sept. 2011, the refinery has run at its full capacity. Last year, it produced almost 5.5 million tons of petroleum products and sold more than 5.4 million tons of products for almost VND110 trillion. Eight petroleum and gas products produced by the refinery have received ISO 9001-2008 certificates from Norway-based Det Norrske Veritas (DNV), a leading international provider of risk management services. The products include liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), propylene, unleaded petrol, Jet A1 fuel, kerosene and diesel oil.

VPBank yesterday reported it had officially raised chartered capital by VND617 billion to about VND5 trillion from VND4.4 trillion by issuing bonus shares to its existing shareholders. Newly-issued bonus shares are part of the bank’s dividend issued to shareholders at the rate of 10.5% plus a dividend in cash at 15.57%. The share issue to spur capital had been endorsed by the central bank on September 8 last year. The additional sum ofVND617 billion due to the share issue is extracted from retained earnings worth VND420 billion in 2010 and from the bank’s capital surplus of VND616 billion. For the whole year of 2011, VPBank obtained some VND1 trillion and VND80.66 trillion in consolidated pre-tax profits and total assets respectively. The mobilization growth rate at the bank last year rose by 41% while its total outstanding loans went up by 19.8% and bad debts at 1.76%. VPBank now has nearly 200 branches and transaction offices in 33 provinces and cities nationwide.

The domestic gas retail price increased by VND8,000 (US$0.38) per 12kg canister yesterday, hitting VND383,000 ($18.20). Le Phuc Dai, general director of the Vinagas Dai Viet Energy JSC, attributed the rise to the increase in the fuel import tax rate from 2-5 per cent earlier this month. The increase in the retail price was the second in five days after it rose by VND24,000 ($1.14) per 12kg canister on January 1.