State-owned conglomerates sit on mountains of cash As famous names on the stock market of Vietnam, some giant State-owned groups like Vietnam Gas Corporation (GAS) and Phu My Fertilizer have huge amounts of money.   In recent years, GAS has always topped the list of firms owning a gigantic mountain of cash. But when oil prices plunged, this firm was affected severely. However, its consolidated financial statement of the second quarter of 2016 shows that GAS’ cash flow was not affected much, with VND17,114 billion ($767.4 million), down VND634 billion ($30 million) compared with the end of 2015. GAS had up to VND23 trillion ($1.03 billion) of cash and cash equivalents, accounting for 38.3% of its total assets. Notably, GAS has abundant cash while its profits seriously declined. Its profit after tax in second quarter of 2016 reached only VND1,658 billion ($74.3 million), down VND1,019 billion, corresponding to 38% over the same period of last year. This group also owns huge debt. As of the second quarter of this year, its debt totaled VND8,000 billion ($358.7 million). The group’s interest expense in the period was VND109 billion (nearly $5 million), up 1.7 times over the same period last year. The PetroVietnam Fertilizer and Chemicals Corporation (DPM) also holds a huge amount of cash. According to the consolidated financial statement of the second quarter this year, DPM owned cash and cash equivalents of VND5,143 billion ($230.6 million), representing 71.7% of current assets and 50% of total assets. In the same period of last year, DPM held up to VND5,690 billion ($255.1 million) in cash. DPM's cash amount reduced because it paid up to VND587 billion ($27 million) dividend in June. In the second quarter of 2016, DPM’s after-tax profit reached VND379 billion compared to VND290 billion in the same period of 2015. Like GAS, holding a lot of cash but DPM owed over VND1,100 billion ($50 million) of debts. However, this debt does not cause too much pressure on DPM as the interest in the period was just over VND1 billion ($50,000). Na Son, VNN