VEF Leads Vietnamese Real Estate Profit Slump: 9M2026 Earnings Down 35-99%

Overview

VEFAC (ticker VEF, UPCOM), the operator of the Vietnam Exhibition Fair Centre, reported 9M2026 pre-tax profit of VND 1,085B, down 94% year-on-year, according to Q3/2026 financial statements compiled across the sector. The drop reflects an exceptionally high 2025 base rather than a collapse in current operations, and it sits within a broad real estate earnings miss spanning more than a dozen listed developers with declines of 35-99%.

Key Facts

• VEFAC (VEF) 9M2026 pre-tax profit: VND 1,085B, down 94% YoY, a fall of VND 18,210B.
• VEF Q3/2026 pre-tax profit: VND 405B, up 89% YoY.
• Hodeco (HDC): revenue up 63% to VND 459B, but pre-tax profit down 73% to VND 207B.
• Thuduc House (TDH): pre-tax profit down 99% to roughly VND 1B, the steepest percentage decline in the group.
• Nam Long (NLG): pre-tax profit down 50% to VND 310B; real estate sales revenue down 54% to VND 1,738B.
• Becamex IDC (BCM): pre-tax profit down 68%, or VND 1,666B, to VND 796B; net revenue down 53.5% to VND 2,591B.
• Sonadezi Châu Đức (SZC): pre-tax profit down 77% to VND 70B; industrial park land lease revenue down 86% to VND 82B, though Vietcap estimates cash collected from the segment rose 59% to VND 626B.

What Happened

The figures come from Q3/2026 financial statements, as summarised in the source article. VEFAC’s 2025 result included a large gain from transferring part of the Vinhomes Global Gate project in Đông Anh, Hà Nội, which set a base the 2026 period could not match. The company’s third-quarter profit nonetheless rose 89% year-on-year to VND 405B, indicating that the underlying business did not deteriorate at the rate the nine-month comparison implies.

The pattern repeats across the sector. Hodeco’s 2025 profit was lifted by the transfer of shares in the Đại Dương Vũng Tàu project, and its 9M2026 revenue growth of 63% did not prevent a 73% profit decline. Thuduc House’s prior-year figure included a one-off gain tied to litigation with the Hồ Chí Minh City tax authority that did not recur. Nam Long attributed its 50% decline to slower property handovers. In industrial real estate, Becamex IDC and Sonadezi Châu Đức both reported sharp drops, with SZC affected by a change in accounting: from the start of 2026 it recognises industrial park land lease revenue over time rather than in a single hit, as it did in 2025.

Market Context

VEF closed at VND 77,000 on 1 November 2026 on UPCOM, the unlisted public company market, where liquidity is thin and prices can move on small volumes. HDC closed at VND 11,250, NLG at VND 22,000 and TDH at VND 2,630, all on HOSE. The results land as Vietnamese developers work through a slow residential handover cycle and a subdued credit environment for real estate, with the earnings pressure concentrated in revenue recognition timing rather than in outright demand destruction. Industrial park names face a separate dynamic, where cash collection can outpace reported revenue depending on lease accounting.

Strategic Significance

For long-term investors, the headline declines are largely an accounting and base-effect story rather than a demand signal. The distinction that matters is between companies whose profit fell because a one-off gain did not repeat, such as VEFAC and Hodeco, and those where the core handover pipeline is genuinely thinner, as at Nam Long. Sonadezi Châu Đức illustrates a third case: the switch to time-based revenue recognition depresses reported profit while cash collection rises, which distorts simple year-on-year comparisons. Investors screening the sector on profit growth alone risk misreading all three.

What to Watch

• Q4/2026 and full-year 2026 financial statements, to confirm whether the declines are base effects or a sustained handover slowdown.
• Nam Long’s 2027 handover schedule and pre-sales disclosures, the clearest read on residential demand.
• Industrial park lease cash collection versus recognised revenue at BCM and SZC, given the accounting change at SZC.
• Any further project transfers at VEFAC, which would repeat the one-off dynamic that drove the 2025 base.
• LDG’s reported nine-month loss and any restructuring or delisting risk disclosures.