BKAV Pro has released its financial report for 2023, which shows negative business results. Its post-tax profit dropped by 53 percent from the year before to VND18.7 billion, while the ROE (return on equity) fell from 19 percent in 2022 to 8.4 percent in 2023.

As of the end of 2023, BKAV Pro’s stockholder equity had increased by 9 percent compared with the beginning of the year to VND222.7 billion, but the debt was still high with the D/E (debt to equity) 1.42x.

As such, the accounts payable of BKAV Pro founded by Nguyen Tu Quang reached VND316 billion, including VND170 billion worth of bond debts.

The 3-year bond debts will reach maturity in May. The fixed interest rate of 10.5 percent is applied for the first year. For the next two years, interest rates will be calculated by reference interest rates plus 4.5 percent per annum.

HNX has confirmed that BKAV Pro paid interest in full in the latest payment period in November 2023.

According to VNDirect Securities, Quang’s BKAV Pro owed tens of billions of dong to the securities company. 

BKAV Pro is a well-known technology firm in the field of software production and anti-virus solutions.

BKAV was founded by Quang in 2003. It initially operated in the fields of network security and software, but later it became better known as the manufacturer of the high-end smartphone BPhone brand, commencing in mid-2015.

In the second half of 2017, BKAV became even more famous when it invested hundreds of billion of dong (thought to be sourced from the sale of anti-virus products in previous years) in smartphones and launched BPhones. The smartphone was advertised as a high-end product with a near-high end price. With retail prices of around VND10 million, BKAV had the ambition of competing with other high-end models in the world.

In early 2022, Quang revealed in local media that BKAV had spent VND1 trillion to develop BPhone. Quang and his firm hoped that Vietnam would have a smartphone industry run by Vietnamese, and that BKAV would become the world’s leading smartphone manufacturer.

He affirmed that his firm could compete equally with any smartphone manufacturer in the world, in both hardware and software, including in R&D, and that BKAV could make products in no way inferior to Samsung or Apple.

However, since early 2024, smartphones with BPhone brand have not been seen at technology product retail chains and used-phone product shops. The BPhone series had errors in the operating system and battery.

AI cameras

In addition to anti-virus products which continue to succeed in the market, in recent years, BKAV has injected money into AI cameras and digital transformation products.

In May 2021, BKAV mobilized VND170 billion from 3-year bond issuance (which will become mature in May) for these two fields.

AI cameras are modern surveillance cameras equipped with top-notch features thanks to the use of intelligent, synchronized processing programs. The product uses additional identification technologies such as distinguishing between strangers and acquaintances and counting people.

Technology experts said that AI cameras are used in real life, especially in customer service and cybersecurity. According to Market Research Future, the AI camera market is valued at tens of billions of dollars and has two-digit annual growth rates.

Analysts say that BKAV made a wise move when withdrawing capital from smartphone production and focusing on anti-virus products, AI cameras and products for digital transformation.

If the capital mobilized from the bond issuance is used for the development of the new business fields, BKAV is likely to make a breakthrough. However, it still needs to have huge capital and have high profitability rate.

BKAV is not a listed company, so there is not much information about it.

Manh Ha