Thanks to its strong expansion on the international markets, favorable exchange rate movements, the launch of new services and the development of strategic projects, Viettel made a profit of VND1 trillion (about $43.5 million) from overseas markets in the first half of 2017.

According to Viettel Global’s first half-year report, the firm achieved revenue of up to VND14 trillion ($600 million) and after-tax profit of VND1 trillion ($43.5 million) from nine overseas markets, bringing Viettel Global back to the club of VND trillion profit companies from overseas investment activities.

The outstanding financial result of Viettel during this period is thanks to positive movements in its traditional markets as well as new markets, new strategic projects, strong shifts in new services and favorable exchange rate movements.

Movement in overseas markets

In addition to Laos, Cambodia, and East Timor – the traditional markets that bring good profit to Viettel Global - other companies in Peru, Burundi or Haiti are also making huge contribution to the company’s strong growth.

In the first 6 months of this year, Viettel's sales in Peru and Burundi exceeded East Timor. Its growths in Peru and Burundi were 82% and 38% consecutively, while East Timor reached only 29%. Even Haiti, the market that is recovering from the typhoon in 2016, achieved sale growth of 15% over the same period of last year.

Among Viettel’s new markets, Peru and East Timor are the two most prominent ones. Viettel's pre-tax profit in Peru in the first half of this year reached VND405 billion ($18 million), 132% over its projected plan. Its revenue in this market was estimated at VND2.5 trillion ($112 million), an increase of 82% year on year and 3% over the plan.

In East Timor, Viettel Timor Leste (Telemor) earned VND340 billion ($15 million) of profit, 29% up over the same period last year and 10% over the target. The number of customers also rose by 42% over the plan.

Favorable exchange rate movements

Different from 2016, Viettel is benefiting from exchange rates movements in new markets, including Mozambique and Cameroon. The local currencies no longer devalued up to 40-60% as in previous years, and exchange rates of the currencies in Mozambique and Cameroon compared to the US dollar leveled off, helping Viettel earn huge profits in these countries.

The local governments’ strict control over exchange rate slippage help Viettel earn profits of 14% in Mozambique and 7% in Cameroon. Potential markets such as Peru and Haiti also benefited from this control by gaining 3% to 6% increase in profit.

General Director of Viettel Global Le Dang Dung said that if the situation continues to be favorable till the end of the year, Viettel can earn huge profits from these markets, especially in Mozambique and Cameroon, where the profit can reach $60-$70 million.

New services and strategic projects

Dung said that by setting specific targets for each market separately, depending on the characteristics of GDP, scale, geographical situation and issues related to finance and politics, Viettel has developed a unique plan for each company aboard, focusing on 1 to 2 most important goals. From scale development, subscriber growth, service enhancement to real APRU revenue growth per user, Viettel Global is aiming for the main goal, which is achieving $250 million of profit from overseas market in 2017.

Viettel is also changing its image to bring in new young customers in traditional markets. For example, after long periods of being framed as "the network of the elderly" in Cambodia, VTG has taken steps to attract new group of customers who are young and likely to spend more. By changing the color of the logo, making events attractive to young customers, and changing customer care strategies, Metfone, Viettel’s company in Cambodia, has had a total of 7 million subscribers by the end of June 2017.

Viettel’s company in Laos, Unitel, has quickly reached a number of 4 million subscribers, maintaining the top position here. In East Timor, Viettel utilizes new frequencies to bring in millions of dollars profit and promotes new 4G data service in the country.

In Peru, thanks to its early investments in 4G networks, Bitel has become the largest 4G network in this country with 5,000 residential centers through 3,000 stations. Only in the first half of 2017, the number of Bitel customers increased by 5 times, bringing the total number of Bitel customers to over 2 million.

According to Viettel Global, to maintain its leading position in most overseas markets and create momentum for the upcoming years, Viettel will focus on new business models such as IT solutions, electronic wallets, population management systems, tax solutions, etc.

In the first 6 months of 2017, Viettel successfully inked eight agreements with overseas partners with a total value of more than VND400 billion ($17.4 million) and revenue of VND270 billion ($11.7 million), 4 times higher than the total profit of 2016./.

VNF/Vietnamnet