On the morning of March 30, Hoa Phat Group JSC (stock code: HPG) held the 2023 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders with some key highlights as follows:
• Dividend payment plan: no dividend due to significant capital demand in 2023. Total investment in fixed assets of phase 2 for Dung Quat project has reached about 75,000 billion VND (more than USD 3 billion).
• Business plan 2023 and long term: Continue to invest in the Hoa Phat Dung Quat 2 Iron and Steel Production Complex Project construction. Completed and put into trial operation for the Container Factory project. Business plan 2023: revenue VND 150,000 billion, profit after tax VND 8,000 billion, down 5%yoy. It is expected that by the end of 2024-early 2025, Dung Quat factory will come into operation and generate additional revenue of VND80,000-100,000 billion for HPG.
• Long-term orientation: HPG will shift firmly to manufacturing high-quality steel and fabricated steel (for shipbuilding, automobile, screws, and pre-tensioners), leaving the playing field of plain steel, such as construction steel, to other firms.
• Update on the business condition in the first quarter of 2023: Company leaders said that HPG suffered losses in the first two months of the year, while March operating results improved. In January, HPG reopened one of the four blast furnaces closed since 2022 to reduce output due to the challenging business situation. In the second quarter, HPG will rerun the remaining 3 blast furnaces.