SMC gains margin-trading eligibility as HOSE removes it from the margin list; board candidate is Vietcombank CEO’s younger brother

An HOSE-listed steel company, SMC Joint Stock Company – Trading and Investment of SMC, has received positive margin trading news after HOSE announced that SMC's stock was removed from the list of securities not eligible for margin trading as of April 14, 2026. The removal was possible because undistributed post-tax profits as of December 31, 2025 stood at VND 40.49 billion and the audit opinion was unqualified based on the 2025 audited consolidated financial statements. The company has also addressed the reasons that led to the margin warning. This is favorable news for the steel company after a period of aggressive restructuring to revive finances following a prolonged crisis. SMC, once a leading player in steel trading with a 37-year history, was ahead of Hoa Phat at its peak, with revenue exceeding VND 21,000 billion and after-tax profit over VND 900 billion. However, since the Covid-19 pandemic, SMC's business results deteriorated and fell into losses, at times with accumulated losses over VND 400 billion. From 2025, SMC began to implement restructuring steps to revive the business. Accordingly, SMC turned to profit again, with net profit near VND 200 billion. Nevertheless, the profit mainly came from asset disposals and write-backs of allowances, while core operations have not yet fully recovered. Revenue fell to the lowest level since 2010, to just over VND 7,000 billion. In addition, there are bad debts related to the Novaland group that could not be collected worth hundreds of billions. At the close on April 15, SMC's share price stood at 13,800 dong per share. On April 24, SMC is expected to hold its 2026 annual general meeting. The company targets 2026 consolidated revenue of nearly flat at around VND 7,000 billion. Meanwhile, net profit is expected to reach about VND 30 billion, down 85% from 2025. SMC's sales volume is expected to reach 420,000 tons of steel products, about 9% lower than the same period. One notable point at the upcoming meeting is the re-election of the Board of Directors and Supervisory Board for 2026-2031. Among the announced candidates, one name attracting attention is Mr. Le Quang Hai (born 1979). According to his biography, Mr. Hai previously served as Consulting Director at Mekong Securities from 2009-2011; Consulting Director at VPBank Securities from 2011-2021; Deputy Manager - Projects, Finance Department at VPBank from 2012-2023. From 2016-2023, Hai was Head of the Supervisory Board at FE Credit (under VPBank) and currently he is a Senior Advisor at KPMG Vietnam. Mr. Le Quang Hai is also known as the younger brother of Mr. Le Quang Vinh (born 1976), who currently serves as General Director of Vietcombank. Read more