Ms. Pham Minh Huong: VNDirect missed the growth opportunity during the market ‘wave’

On May 18, VNDirect Securities Joint Stock Company held its 2026 annual meeting, with the participation of hundreds of shareholders, filling the auditorium. At the beginning of the congress, Ms. Pham Minh Huong, President of the company, shared with investors about the recent operating situation.

According to Ms. Huong, VNDirect has encountered many difficulties in the past two years, especially after being attacked by hackers in 2024. Since then, the company has “slowed down”, invested more in technology infrastructure, and prepared new resources to adapt to the age of artificial intelligence (AI).

Chairman of VNDirect shared that the company has encountered great competition in the securities services segment in the past two years. The business also does not deploy high-risk structured products, because they are a large financial institution, prioritizing safety for customers and brands.

In addition, VNDirect owns more than 600 brokers, but is facing great competition because the team still cannot differentiate the consulting services needed when customers are trading on the digital platform.

“During the market wave, we admit that we missed growth opportunities in the brokerage services segment when looking at market share,” Ms. Huong said. The company’s president said that this is a point that needs to be seriously learned, because the business focuses on other goals but has not well preserved its existing advantages.

According to data from the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HoSE), at the end of 2025, VNDirect’s brokerage market share on this exchange was at 5.37%, down about 2 percentage points compared to the end of 2023. This business also fell from third position in the industry in terms of brokerage market share in 2023 to 7th at the end of 2025. Meanwhile, VN-Index increased by more than 600 points at the same time. period.

However, Ms. Pham Minh Huong affirmed that 2026 will be a “hinge” time for VNDirect to return to the track. The company will shift to a new business strategy, but still ensure efficiency on capital. Over the past 5 years, the company’s return on equity (ROE) reached about 16% and the Board of Directors aims to maintain above 15% in the next 5 years.

This chairman said that VNDirect has an advantage in core technology, providing solutions for 40 other companies to use. This shows that the business has a certain position in the financial ecosystem.

In addition, with an equity capital of more than 20,000 billion VND, Ms. Huong believes that VNDirect has the conditions to expand into investment banking and issuance consulting activities, and participate more deeply in the capital and currency markets.

However, what creates VNDirect’s greatest strength is that the company has experienced many major events in just 20 years of operation – experiences that many financial institutions in the world take hundreds of years to have. Ms. Huong commented that this creates management skills and the ability to build a risk-resistant system.

In 2026, VNDirect sets a pre-tax profit target of VND 3,000 billion, up 20% over the same period last year. At the end of the first quarter, the business had completed about 21% of the yearly plan.

In addition to VNDirect’s business plan, the company’s shareholders are also interested in the operating situation of Trung Nam Group – a company that VNDirect has participated in consulting and underwriting bond issuance for many years.

Sharing about this issue, General Director Nguyen Vu Long said that over the past 4 years, Trung Nam Group has encountered many difficulties in raising capital when the crisis in the bond market occurred. In addition, some of this company’s large infrastructure projects also encountered problems related to administrative procedures, causing the business to strive to endure throughout the period from 2022 to present.

However, in recent times, Trung Nam Group’s difficulties have gradually been resolved, especially related to key infrastructure projects, helping production and business activities recover. “We are currently involved in about VND 4,000 billion in bonds with Trung Nam group and have coordinated with each other to restructure, to ensure cash flow to repay debt in the near future,” Mr. Long shared.

According to assessments from VNDirect leaders, Trung Nam Group is still one of the leading enterprises in the energy field. In Power Plan VIII, this company continues to deploy many new projects. General Director of VNDriect expects Trung Nam to return to a new growth cycle and continue to pursue the goal of becoming one of the major renewable names in Vietnam.