Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - With a relatively attractive valuation and a bullishindustry outlook, seafood stocks are expected to grow positively in 2022.

The prospect of the seafood industry in 2022 is expected to continue to beoptimistic, with export turnover forecast to reach 9 billion USD, An BinhSecurities Joint Stock Company said.

According to analysts, the recovery and reopening of the global economy,especially in the US and Europe, thanks to the promotion of vaccinations, willboost demand for Vietnamese seafood exports.

The seafood sector also benefits from multilateral and bilateral tradeagreements. As the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) comes into effect,some shrimp products exported to the EU with a tariff rate of 12-20 percentwill be reduced to 0 percent, such as frozen black tiger shrimp.
Thiswill reflect in the positive upcoming business results of seafood exporters inthe fourth quarter of 2021 and the whole of 2022.

In addition, as stock valuation is not high, the seafood industry is stillattractive to investors.

On the stock market, except for Vinh Hoan Corporation (VHC), seafood stockswitnessed a strong correction in January after surging last year, with Minh PhuSeafood Corporation (MPC) down 15 percent, Navico (ANV) dropping 25 percent,Camimex Group (CMX) down 33 percent and Sao Mai Group Corporation (ASM) down 27percent. However, these stocks started to recover and gained quite sharply fromthe beginning of February.

Especially, on February 14, while the market benchmark VN-Index dropped nearly30 points, seafood was one of the rare stock groups posting positiveperformance.

Of which, VHC and ANV hit the ceiling price of 6.9 percent, while many otherstocks rose such as I.D.I International Development & InvestmentCorporation (IDI) up 6.5 percent, Cuu Long Fish JSC (ACL) up 5 percent, and CMXup 4.4 percent.

Despite difficulties, especially during many months of social distancing due tothe pandemic, the seafood industry has experienced a successful year in 2021.

Most businesses in the industry recorded positive business results in the pastyear, with revenue and profit margins increasing thanks to the recovery ofexport seafood prices.

In the last quarter of 2021, the leading exporter of the industry, Vinh Hoan,posted consolidated net revenue of 2.69 trillion VND, up 33.8 percent over thesame period in 2020, resulting in a gain of 175 percent in profit after tax to 461.2billion VND. This was the company's highest quarterly profit since mid-2018.

For 2021, Vinh Hoan saw net revenue of 9.05 trillion VND with profit after taxreaching 1.1 trillion VND, up 28.6 percent and 54.3 percent on-year, respectively.

Sao Ta Foods JSC(FMC) also reported good results in the last quarter of 2021.The company’s revenue exceeded the milestone of over 1.44 trillion VND, whileits profit after tax reached over 110 billion VND; up 19.4 percent year-on-yearand 73.4 percent, respectively.

For the whole of 2021, Sao Ta Foods posted record revenue of nearly 5.2trillion VND, while its profit after tax also hit an all-time high at 285.6billion VND.

Similarly, Camimex Group reported revenue in the fourth quarter of 2021 double thesame period of 2020 and profit increased 23.6 percent over 2020 to 23.78billion VND. 

For 2021, the company’s net revenue jumped 53.7 percent to 2.19 trillion VND,with profit after tax up 38 percent to 82.9 billion VND.

Meanwhile, Minh Phu Seafood, which has yet to announce the fourth quarter'sconsolidated financial statements, would like to extend the deadline forsubmitting business results until February 25.

In the first nine months of the year, Minh Phu recorded net revenue of 8.9trillion VND, up 11 percent year-on-year, with profit after tax of 565.6billion VND, up 19.1 percent. In 2021, Minh Phu targeted a revenue of 15.7trillion VND, with profit after tax of 1.09 trillion VND.

According to a report from SSI Securities Corporation, the industry's averageprice to earnings ratio (P/E) increased to 11-13x in 2021, from 7-9x./.