GAS - Higher-than-expected FO price; resilient gas sales volume

- GAS announced its Q2 2023 results with revenue of VND24tn (USD1bn; -13.1% YoY) and NPAT-MI of VND3.2tn (USD134mn; -38.0% YoY). We attribute the 13.1% YoY decrease in revenue to a 31% YoY lower average fuel oil (FO) price, which outweighed resilient gas sales volume. Meanwhile, the 38.0% YoY decrease in NPAT-MI was partly due to a 19% YoY increase in SG&A expenses.

- In H1 2023, revenue was VND45tn (USD1.9bn; -16.7% YoY) and NPAT-MI was VND6.5tn (USD276mn; -23.6% YoY).

- GAS’s H1 2023 NPAT-MI completed 56.2% of our full-year forecast and beat our expectation. We believe the higher-than-expected average FO price to slightly outweigh the lower-than-expected contribution of gas volume from cheap gas fields. We thus foresee slight upside potential to our 2023F NPAT-MI projection, pending a fuller review.