Owner of The Coffee House, Fast Delivery, big loss

This business has been doing business below cost for two consecutive years with a loss last year increasing by nearly 24% compared to 2020.

Along with negative business results, Seedcom’s equity decreased by nearly 95% compared to 2020, to more than 21 billion dong. Accordingly, the debt-to-equity ratio increased to nearly 69.5 times, an increase of more than 26 times after just one year. Accordingly, the enterprise is recording nearly 1,480 billion dong of liabilities.

Last year, Seedcom raised VND50 billion in bonds to increase the size of operating capital and invest in subsidiaries. This bond has a term of 2 years with an interest rate of 12% per year. The collateral is more than 1.8 million shares of Vietnam Tea Coffee Service Trading Joint Stock Company – a subsidiary of Seedcom and the operator of The Coffee House chain – with a value of more than VND 200 billion. .

The cause of the big loss was due to the pandemic’s impact on Seedcom’s retail ecosystem. During the peak period of isolation, almost only two delivery units, AhaMove and Fast Delivery, could operate, other chains such as The Coffee House, Juno, Hnoss… had to close for a long time.

Before that, the disease also affected the above ecosystem when Ficus Asia Investment – the investment fund behind Seedcom – announced negative business results in 2020. This fund only recorded nearly 157 million USD in revenue, down 11% compared to the previous year. In which, coffee and fashion retail declined the most.

Ficus Asia’s 2020 net loss more than halved to $38 million. However, the business representative said, the actual figure is only about 3 million USD. The rest is a provision expense (non-cash) related to commitments with investors.

Last quarter of last year, The Coffee House launches a kiosk model, specializes in serving take away, integrated into convenient supermarkets or set up small selling points on main roads. CEO Le Ba Nam Anh once said that The Coffee House will open a large number of stores following this model from the end of last year to the beginning of this year. But in fact, up to now, this chain has only opened 2 points of sale in Ho Chi Minh City.

Last year, Seedcom also “encroached” on the financial sector when cooperating with Kvision Bank of Kbank (Thailand) to provide payment solutions, SME lending, insurance and asset management. The two sides want to promote non-cash transactions and promote financial activities in Vietnam.

In addition to business expansion, Seedcom also transferred Cau Dat Farm – which owns the farm, processing workshop and cold storage of coffee – to Nova Consumer. This is considered a move in the plan to restructure the investment portfolio, focusing more on new retail support solutions and retail technology. Seedcom wants to take advantage of the technology platform and cut down on portfolios that are no longer relevant.

Seedcom was established in 2014 with the goal of developing a new retail model – applying retail and manufacturing technology to bring a seamless experience from online to offline. This business not only makes financial investments but also participates in the operation and development of products and services at companies in the ecosystem. To date, Seedcom is operating many brands such as The Coffee House, AhaMove, Fast Delivery, Juno, Hnoss, Kingfoodmart, Haravan…

Siddhartha