The largest bookstore chain in the South deposits 460 billion in the bank to earn interest

Ho Chi Minh City Book Distribution Joint Stock Company (Fahasa, code FHS) has just announced its consolidated financial report for the third quarter with not-so-positive results in the context of the general weakening purchasing power of the economy .

However, it is worth noting that financial revenue doubled year-on-year to VND7 billion, all of which came from interest on bank deposits and loans. This was thanks to the company continuously increasing its bank deposits, reaching a record high of VND460 billion at the end of the last period.

As a result, Fahasa recorded pre-tax profit of only nearly 19 billion VND, 20% lower than the same period last year. Post-tax profit also decreased accordingly to 15 billion VND.

In the last quarter, the largest bookstore chain in the South recorded flat sales revenue compared to the same period at VND1,430 billion. Lower cost of goods and fewer returns helped gross profit increase slightly to VND344 billion, corresponding to a gross profit margin of nearly 24%.

Gross profit margin improved but operating expenses increased sharply, "eating" almost all profits. Of which, selling expenses accounted for a large proportion of about 298 billion VND (up 11% compared to the third quarter of 2022) and followed by business management expenses of nearly 35 billion VND.

However, thanks to good results at the beginning of the year, this bookstore owner recorded a slight increase in cumulative sales revenue for the first 9 months to VND3,261 billion. Pre-tax profit increased by nearly 20% to nearly VND47 billion (this figure included the contribution of more than VND17 billion in bank deposit interest).

According to the plan set for 2023, Fahasa shareholders agreed with the target of 4,000 billion VND in revenue and 50 billion VND in pre-tax profit. Thus, the company has achieved 82% of the revenue target and 94% of the profit target.

Total assets have seen rapid expansion in recent quarters, reaching nearly VND1,745 billion, 35% higher than at the beginning of the year. The rapid increase in assets was mainly due to an increase in bank deposits, an increase in customer receivables and an increase in inventories.

While many businesses are thirsty for cash, Fahasa is still doing well with a total balance of cash and cash equivalents, and term deposits of about VND514 billion, accounting for 30% of total assets at the end of last quarter.

The book company's liabilities are over VND1,560 billion, mainly from short-term payables to sellers of VND1,335 billion, up 30% compared to the beginning of the year. Fahasa continues to maintain a prudent business policy with no financial debt since the company publicly disclosed its financial statements.

The former 'big brother' of the steel industry suffered losses, the trillion-dollar project remains unfinished . In the first nine months of the year, the former 'big brother' of the steel industry, Tisco, suffered a pre-tax loss of 193 billion VND; meanwhile, another 6,400 billion VND is still 'buried' in the Thai Nguyen Iron and Steel Company's production expansion project - phase II.

Source