The Gioi Di Dong (Mobile World Investment Corporation) owned by Nguyen Duc Tai has reported that its profit in the first four months of the year increased by 18 percent compared with the same period last year to VND47.9 trillion and post-tax profit rose by 8 percent to VND1.82 trillion.

The new business fields all witnessed satisfactory growth. Dien May Xanh, a brand of The Gioi Di Dong, which distributes home appliances, and Topzone reported a 21 percent profit growth rate. An Khang drugstore chain earned an accumulative turnover, increasing by 3.7 percent over the same period last year.

As many as 250 drugstores belong to the An Khang chain and the figure is expected to increase to 500 by July.

FPT Retail, which distributes digital products owned by Truong Gia Binh, has also successfully developed its drugstore chain Long Chau, which is predicted to bring profit of VND50-100 billion in 2022.

Investors can see good prospects for drug distribution. However, doing business in this field requires large capital. As of the end of 2021, FPT Long Chau had an accumulative loss of VND150 billion, equal to 57 percent of the owner’s contributed capital.

Pharmacity, Long Chau and An Khang, the three biggest drugstore chains, are expanding their business. As many as 520 new Long Chau stores have opened in the last four years.

According to the Ministry of Health, the Vietnamese drug market grew rapidly by 17 percent per annum in 2014-2018. The market is estimated to have value of $7-8 billion, while the figure is expected to reach $16 billion by 2026.

Foreign investors can see the great potential of the market and they have made big investments in the field, holding shares of Vietnam’s leading pharmacy firms.

PME of Pymepharco has been sold to a foreign investor and delisted shares on the HCM City bourse. This was a pharmacy firm with the second largest capitalization value in the stock market.

Earlier this year, Sri Avantika, a large Indian firm, went to Hai Duong province to do research to prepare for an international pharmacy park project valued at $10 billion.

In 2021 and the first months of 2022, FPT Retail benefited the most from the Government’s policy on living together with the virus and the efforts to reopen the economy. The business has projected a 20 percent increase in revenue to VND27 trillion and 30 percent increase in profit for 2022.

The drugstore sells Molnupiravir and medical equipment used in the fight against Covid-19.

M. Ha