Despite Challenging Environment, MSN Grows 9M2022 Core Profit by 40%
Despite Challenging Environment, MSN Grows 9M2022 Core Profit by 40%
Masan Group Corporation (HOSE: MSN, “Masan” or the “Company”, today released its unaudited management accounts for the third quarter (“3Q2022”) and first nine months (“9M2022”) of financial year 2022 (“FY2022”).
“Never doubt vision, even in the most challenging times – at Masan we double down during these times. Our modern grocery stores now account for 50% of the nationwide network and we are constantly innovating to give consumers what they want. We have delivered on our Point of Life innovation with 30 WIN stores rolled out in 3Q and we are confident that the WIN concept is a winning, scalable model. Next up, we will launch a retail concept catered to rural consumers and unveil our membership program with the end goal of personalizing daily offerings for 100 million consumers. With our scale and innovations, I believe our growth trajectory is just in its early phase,” said Dr. Nguyen Dang Quang, Chairman of Masan Group.
Masan introduced its “Point of Life” retail concept with the launch of 30 WIN stores. WIN stores show an uplift of 20%+ versus pure grocery model in terms of revenue per sqm providing management confidence to scale the concept further to approximately 80-120 WIN stores by year-end 2022.
Masan successfully closed a $600 million syndicated loan at a competitive interest rate of 6.5% per annum. The loan was oversubscribed by nearly 40 financial institutions. This transaction highlights Masan’s strong credit profile and unique ability to raise capital at attractive terms, particularly during the current volatile global market conditions.
The CrownX (“TCX”), Masan’s integrated consumer-retail platform that consolidates WCM and MCH, achieved strong top and bottom-line results despite challenging macro environment, delivering 16.8% revenue growth and 90.2% net profit growth quarter-over-quarter (“QoQ”). On a normalized basis, TCX revenue is up 7.8% 9M2022 year-over-year (“YoY”), up 17.9% 3Q2022 YoY.
WINLife’s innovations to fuel growth engine:
- WIN stores: 30 Winmart+ locations were converted into WIN stores, a mini mall concept which combines WinMart (grocery), Techcombank (financial services), Phuc Long (tea and coffee), Dr. WIN (health and well-being) and Reddi (telecom), generated around 20% revenue per sqm uplift during pilot phase compared to pre-conversion, mainly driven by increased traffic. As a result, WIN stores also return better store economics of 5.1% store EBIT margin, an increase of 60bps vs. pre-conversion.
- WIN membership: launched a proprietary membership program, WIN membership with 300,000 members within 1.5 month of launch. Members account for nearly ~60% of revenue and on average, members spend 2.3x more per visit than non-members for participating stores.
- WINLife’s payment services: After undergoing a swift in-store eKYC process to open a bank account with Techcombank, customers who pay for products & services within WIN stores using Techcombank’s new cashless and cardless payment solutions, TPay, received an additional 2% promotion on their shopping bills. The newly introduced payment methods currently account for nearly 20% of all transactions within one month after launch. The partnership represents strong synergy between Masan and Techcombank to expand the customer base and create new revenue streams for both sides. Beside potentially converting over half of Techcombank’s 5 million customers who are currently not shopping with WinCommerce to Masan’s customers, Masan shall receive a commission fee for every Techcombank account opened inside its stores.
- With the encouraging results of initial 30 WIN stores pilot in September, management targets to open 80-120 WIN stores by year end while continuing to monitor the performance of WIN membership and payment services to improve the experience and attractiveness of these services for WIN members.
WCM gaining market share (nearly 50% of minimarkets/CVS locations nationwide) while enhancing profit margins.
- WCM opened 176 and 477 new WinMart+ (minimarket) stores in 3Q2022 and 9M2022, respectively, totaling 3,049 WinMart+ locations with performance of new store cohort consistently outperforming older stores. In terms of the number of minimarkets and convenience stores, WinMart+ has increased market share from 40% at the end of 2021 to 48% at the end of 3Q2022. 128 WinMart (supermarket) stores were operational by the end of 3Q2022.
- Despite significant number of new store openings, WCM improved profitability with EBITDA margin of 3.3% in 3Q2022 compared to 2.2% in 2Q2022 due to improved new stores’ performance and higher traffic at existing stores. WCM’s EBITDA increased by 66.2% QoQ to VND251 billion.
- 76% of WinMart+ stores opened in 3Q2022 already achieved positive store-level EBITDA in the first few months of operation compared to 83% of all WinMart+ stores. This reflects management’s improving new store opening and launching capabilities, which demonstrates WCM’s capability to scale up profitably.
- On a normalized basis, revenue was up 8.1% and 17.8% YoY in 9M2022 and 3Q2022, respectively, and up 8.9% QoQ
- On a normalized basis, WinMart+ revenue recorded VND14,730 billion in 9M2022 and VND5,209 billion in 3Q2022, up 11.5% YoY and 16.4% YoY, respectively. Revenue of like-for-like[1] (“LFL”) WinMart+ stores was VND12,070 billion, decreasing by 19.4%. Revenue from newly opened stores for 9M2022 is VND2,661 billion.
- On a normalized basis, WinMart revenue reached VND7,046 billion in 9M2022 and VND2,337 billion, in 3Q2022 increased by 6.0% and 20.2% YoY, respectively. Specifically, LFL stores recorded VND6,735 billion in revenue, down 6.4% in 9M2022 YoY, while the topline of newly opened stores recorded VND310 billion.
MCH regained sales momentum in 3Q2022 while maintaining margin profile.
- MCH achieved VND19,695 billion in net revenue, up 5.4% YoY, and VND4,480 billion in EBITDA, down 2.3% YoY. When normalizing for the effect of consumer stockpiling in 3Q2021, the revenue grew by 9.6% and 9.3% in 9M2022 and 3Q2022, respectively. After scaling down efforts on sales and new product launches in 2Q2022 due to weaker consumer sentiment, management is building up the innovation pipeline focusing on Seasonings and Convenience Foods.
- Core categories Seasonings and Convenience Foods registered strong growth momentum, up 34.0% QoQ and 46.3% QoQ, respectively; while processed meat, coffee all registered high double digits growth. Overall, MCH delivered top-line growth in 3Q2022 by 24.3% QoQ, showing a strong momentum heading into the Tet holiday for 4Q2022.
- Weathering the inflationary pressures on profitability due to higher commodity prices, MCH only saw slight decrease of gross margin to 39.1%, thanks to early hedging efforts, the ability to pass through costs, and a good product mix with higher volume of premium products sold.
- Despite higher sales to distributors, inventory levels declined in 3Q2022 compared to 2Q2022, demonstrating healthy demand from end consumers and better working capital management.
Phuc Long Heritage (“PLH”) continued strong performance with flagship stores while rationalizing kiosk footprint:
- Phuc Long kiosks inside the initial 27 WIN stores grew revenue/day by 116% compared to those in other WinMart+ stores. Focus in 4Q2022 to continue improving kiosk performance inside WIN stores as foundation to further scale up this concept and continue to expand on flagship store networks while maintaining profitability. During 3Q2022, PLH opened 15 flagship stores.
- In 9M2022, Phuc Long achieved VND1,143 billion in revenue and VND199 billion in EBITDA. Flagship stores delivered VND761 billion in revenue and VND233 billion in EBITDA in 9M2022, contribution significantly to bottom-line and demonstrating the potential to become a growth driver for PLH. In the meantime, PLH has closed underperforming kiosks to reduce the total number of kiosks, saving on costs and focusing on flagship stores. Based on the estimation of closing kiosks, Phuc Long expects to deliver additional profit of VND27 billion.
Masan MEATLife’s (“MML”) posted positive EBITDA for the first quarter in 2022 and demonstrated a strong QoQ momentum; closing price gap with wet market strategy to drive volume shows encouraging results:
- On a LFL[1] basis, which excludes the feed business in 2021, MML’s 3Q2022 revenue increased 2.3% YoY and 27.9% QoQ driven by 53.8% increase in pig farm, 35.2% increase in branded pork, 15.8% increase in chicken.
- To increase consumer’s adoption and MML’s volumes for economy of scale, WIN’s membership discount was applied to MML’s meat products at 113 stores, leading to volume increase of 35% during the pilot phase, demonstrating synergy between WCM and MML. Initial positive results encouraged management to roll out the program nationwide.
- 3Q2022 saw MML delivering positive EBITDA for the first time in 2022 thanks to improved gross margins of farm and chicken businesses. Pig farm’s gross margin and EBITDA margin in 3Q2022 recorded 33.9% and 41.2%, a significant improvement from 23.8% and 35.6% in 2Q2022, respectively. Branded pork’s gross margin and EBITDA margin in 3Q2022 recorded -4.8% and -27.8%, declining from 1.9% and -17.6% in 2Q2022, respectively, mainly because of the strategy to lower price to close the gap with wet market price. As a result, MML’s branded pork saw a 31.2% growth in volumes QoQ. Higher chicken prices and volume resulted in VND22 billion in EBITDA of MML’s chicken segment (“3F VIET”) in 3Q2022.
Masan High-Tech Materials (“MHT”):
- Driven by rising commodity prices and strong demand, MHT delivered net revenue of VND11,651 billion in 9M2022, up 21.3% YoY, EBITDA of VND2,548 billion, up 36.3% YoY. MHT delivered NPAT Post-MI of VND262 billion, a VND533 billion improvement over 9M2021.
- 3Q2022 profit continued to see increasing pressure on energy prices and other input product cost at H.C. Starck, mainly caused by Russia – Ukraine conflict.
- Since the signing of the agreement to invest into Nyobolt Limited (“Nyobolt”), a fast-charging Li-ion battery solutions company, management has been collaborating continuously with Nyobolt to advance the product offering and look for opportunities to partner in the manufacturing and commercialization of the battery products as part of its strategy to go into higher value-added tungsten applications.
Techcombank (“TCB”), Masan’s associated company, contributed VND3,560 billion in EBITDA in 9M20222, representing 23.4% YoY growth. For detailed results, please refer to the bank’s website.
Consolidated Financial Results
- Net Revenue: Excluding 2021 feed revenue for a like-for-like comparison due to its deconsolidation, Masan’s net revenue reached VND55,546 billion in 9M2022, an increase of 4.8% versus VND52,978 billion in 9M2021.
- EBITDA: On a like-for-like basis, 9M2022 consolidated EBITDA grew by 7.9% YoY to VND10,826 billion as EBITDA margin reached 19.5% in 9M2022 versus 19.2% in 9M2021. On a reported basis, consolidated EBITDA was down 4.5% in 9M2022 YoY.
- Net Profit After Tax (“NPAT”): Core NPAT Post-MI recorded VND2,105 billion in 9M2022, up 39.5% YoY. NPAT Pre-MI grew by 32.5% on a reported basis and 63.3% on a like-for-like basis in 9M2022 to VND3,952 billion. NPAT Post-MI (after minority interests) grew by 46.8% to VND3,120 billion in 9M2022. TCX’s NPAT Pre-MI in 3Q2022 recorded VND917 billion, up 90.2% QoQ. Besides lower NPAT of MML and MHT, QoQ decline in terms of profit was driven by higher unrealized forex loss from revaluation of USD denominated debt (~VND168 billion), lower income from TCB (~VND101 billion), and the absence of one/off income which existed in 2Q2022.
- Balance Sheet Highlights: Net Debtto LTM (Last 12 Months) EBITDA reached 3.3x at end of 9M2022 compared to 2.2x at the end of FY2021, mainly due to lower cash balance as we spent for acquisitions to advance its WINLife strategy. In light of the current volatile capital market, Masan’s solid cash flow generative consumer-focused businesses has been able to access the local and international debt markets at very favorable cost and terms. The non-cyclical nature of Masan’s businesses gives management confidence in the ability to further advantageously manage the Company’s liquidity in the upcoming months.
MSN-9M2022-Earnings-Release- EN.docx
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