TRUONG HAI GROUP CORPORATION

TRUONG HAI GROUP CORPORATION, also known as THACO (Tập đoàn Trường Hải), is one of Vietnam’s most iconic private conglomerates. Registered under Business ID 3600252847, the company was founded in 2007 and has since expanded into a sprawling multi-industry empire—operating across automotive manufacturing and retail, real estate, logistics, agriculture, and industrial engineering. But despite its scale and legacy, the group’s recent financials reveal a sharp contraction in core revenues and profits that signal a more turbulent future.

A Giant in Transition

As of year-end 2023, TRUONG HAI GROUP reported total assets of USD 4.37 billion, an impressive 23.86% increase year-over-year, placing it among the largest privately held groups in Vietnam. The group also holds equity of USD 1.85 billion and employs a reported 60,000 people. However, these size indicators mask the fact that total sales plummeted by nearly 42% in 2023, falling to just USD 301 million from over USD 1.6 billion just two years prior. This steep drop follows a 67.6% sales collapse in 2022, suggesting deep structural challenges or accounting reclassifications linked to its reorganization into a holding company structure.

Perhaps more troubling is the 88.66% decline in net profit, falling from USD 499 million in 2022 to only USD 56.6 million in 2023. Though still in the black, this represents a massive profit contraction for a group once known for its dominance in Vietnam’s commercial vehicle and passenger car markets.

What’s Behind the Decline?

Several factors appear to be weighing down TRUONG HAI GROUP:

1. Automotive Market Weakness: As the original operator of THACO AUTO, the group has faced falling domestic demand, heightened price competition from foreign brands, and growing consumer preference for electric vehicles—segments where THACO lags behind.

2. Holding Company Transition: TRUONG HAI restructured in recent years to become a multi-industry holding company, diversifying into logistics (THILOGI), agriculture (THAGRICO), and property (THADICO). However, these sectors are capital-intensive and slow to mature, likely contributing to weak short-term returns.

3. Overexpansion Risk: Its portfolio covers everything from fruit plantations to high-tech industrial parks, creating management complexity and capital strain. This is partially reflected in its negative working capital of USD -501 million, a worrying sign of over-leveraging or misaligned cash flow cycles.

4. Strategic Partnership Pressure: TRUONG HAI’s second-largest shareholder is Jardine Cycle & Carriage Limited (JC&C), a Singapore-listed conglomerate owning 26.6% of the group. While the partnership has brought capital and governance standards, it may also be pushing for performance improvements that the group struggles to meet under current macro conditions.

Ownership and Governance

TRUONG HAI remains a tightly held company despite its size. Its largest shareholder is Tran Oanh Manufacturing and Trading Co., Ltd. (59.27%), controlled by founder and Chairman Tran Ba Duong. Duong himself owns an additional 6.67%, while other Vietnamese stakeholders and JC&C round out the equity structure. This hybrid Vietnamese-international ownership model brings both opportunities for scale and challenges in balancing governance expectations.

Transparency and Data Gaps

Though TRUONG HAI GROUP is privately held, it operates with the scale and complexity of a listed enterprise. Yet transparency remains a challenge. While it publishes press releases and public-facing reports, granular disclosures on segment performance, debt levels, and capital expenditures remain limited. This poses difficulties for suppliers, creditors, and financial institutions seeking to evaluate real exposure to the group’s many sub-brands and subsidiaries.

Here, independent verification becomes essential. VANGUARD BUSINESS INFORMATION LLC (VBI) plays a key role in delivering verified financial intelligence on Vietnamese corporate giants like TRUONG HAI GROUP. Through deep-dive credit assessments, shareholder mapping, and liquidity analysis, VBI helps local and foreign stakeholders navigate risks in opaque business ecosystems. In TRUONG HAI’s case, VBI’s data highlights the mismatch between asset growth and earnings performance, underscoring the value of third-party scrutiny even for household names.

Final Assessment

TRUONG HAI GROUP CORPORATION remains a vital pillar of Vietnam’s industrial economy—its plants, ports, and distribution networks employ tens of thousands and shape national infrastructure. But its sharp revenue and profit declines, negative working capital, and over-diversified portfolio now raise red flags about long-term financial sustainability.

The company must urgently refocus on profitability, simplify its portfolio, and enhance financial transparency to regain momentum and stakeholder confidence. Until then, investors and partners should look beyond its size and legacy—and depend on critical due diligence providers like VBI for a clearer view of the road ahead.