On the evening of October 27, GELEX Group (HoSE: GEX) released its Q3 2026 consolidated financial statements. Consolidated net profit came to more than VND 882 billion, up nearly 13% year on year. But the portion attributable to GELEX shareholders was only about VND 246 billion, down more than 60% from VND 622 billion in Q3 2025. The remaining VND 636 billion went to non-controlling shareholders, nearly four times the same period.Người Quan Sát
The headlines are accurate: revenue is up more than 40%, and nine-month pre-tax profit has already passed the full-year plan. For someone holding GEX shares, though, the line that drives earnings per share moved the other way. This post follows the two legs along which profit leaks between revenue and the GEX shareholder's pocket.
Three profit lines in one report
A group with many subsidiaries, like GELEX, always reports at least three profit lines, each answering a different question.
Consolidated pre-tax profit adds up the whole system, including subsidiaries GELEX owns only in part. It is the figure GELEX measures against its annual plan: after nine months it reached VND 3,931 billion, about 8.8% above the full-year target.Fili Consolidated net profit is what remains after corporate income tax, still for the whole system.
The third line, net profit attributable to GELEX shareholders, is consolidated net profit after subtracting the share that belongs to other shareholders of the subsidiaries. GEX's EPS is computed from this line, and so, over the long run, is GELEX's capacity to pay dividends to GEX holders.
Q3 2026 is the quarter in which the three lines diverge most. Pre-tax profit rose 5%, consolidated net profit rose nearly 13%, and profit attributable to GELEX shareholders fell more than 60%. The nine-month figures point the same way: consolidated net profit was VND 2,817 billion, up about 16.6%, while the GELEX-shareholder portion fell nearly 31.8% to VND 1,032 billion.Người Quan Sát The divergence is not confined to one quarter.
Leg one: from gross profit to pre-tax profit
The operating side of Q3 was solid. Net revenue reached VND 13,957 billion, up 41.8%. Cost of goods sold grew more slowly, so gross profit rose nearly 52% to VND 2,778 billion and the gross margin edged up from 18.6% to 19.9%. By the company's explanation, the gain came from electrical equipment, building materials, real estate and industrial-park infrastructure.Người Quan Sát
Yet gross profit rose almost 52% while pre-tax profit rose only 5%. Most of that gap sits in financial activity. Financial income fell 43.1% to nearly VND 430 billion, while financial expenses rose from VND 426 billion to VND 1,024 billion, about 2.4 times. GELEX explained that, year on year, financial income dropped VND 326 billion and financial expenses rose VND 597 billion.Người Quan Sát
Taken together, financial activity flipped from adding profit to subtracting it. In Q3 2025 financial income exceeded financial expenses by about VND 329 billion. In Q3 2026 the balance was about negative VND 594 billion (nearly VND 430 billion minus VND 1,024 billion). That swing of about VND 923 billion is close to the entire increase in gross profit, roughly VND 946 billion (VND 2,778 billion versus VND 1,832 billion a year earlier).
Selling expenses rose nearly 12% and administrative expenses nearly 6%, while other profit of more than VND 95 billion offset part of the damage.Người Quan Sát The main place where profit is eroded is therefore finance.
Debt behind the interest bill
Within Q3 financial expenses, interest expense alone was VND 589 billion, up more than 82% from about VND 323.55 billion in Q3 2025. Interest rose alongside debt. At September 30, 2026, GELEX's borrowings and finance lease liabilities were about VND 33,406 billion, up more than VND 4,700 billion since the start of the year. Total liabilities were more than VND 48,335 billion against total assets of nearly VND 83,379 billion.Người Quan Sát
Set interest next to pre-tax profit for the same quarter: VND 589 billion is about 45% of VND 1,316 billion, versus about 26% a year earlier (VND 323.55 billion on VND 1,253 billion). Each dong of pre-tax profit now carries an interest burden almost twice as heavy.
There are two limits. The September 30 debt figure includes finance leases, so its scope is not strictly the same as earlier periods. And the quarterly report does not say where the extra borrowing sits, and the drop in financial income may reflect an unusually high investment gain in Q3 2025 rather than lower deposits alone.
Leg two: who receives the profit
After tax, the more than VND 882 billion is split two ways. GELEX shareholders receive nearly VND 246 billion, about 28%. Non-controlling shareholders receive VND 636 billion, about 72%. In Q3 2025 the split was nearly the reverse: GELEX shareholders took about VND 622 billion of VND 781 billion, roughly 80%.
Non-controlling shareholders are the other owners of GELEX's subsidiaries. GELEX directly holds about 75.96% of GELEX Electric (GEE), so roughly a quarter of GEE's profit belongs to others. Viglacera (VGC) is different: its 50.21% holder is GELEX Infrastructure JSC (GEL), not GELEX directly, and GEL is itself a listed company with its own shareholders. Viglacera's profit therefore passes through two layers of sharing before reaching GEX holders: nearly half stays with Viglacera's other shareholders, and what remains is split again at GELEX Infrastructure.
Viglacera has just posted a large quarter. Its Q3 2026 consolidated net profit exceeded VND 616 billion, five times the same period,Vietbao against about VND 117.64 billion in Q3 2025. At Viglacera's own level, nearly half of the roughly VND 500 billion increase already belongs to shareholders outside GELEX Infrastructure. This is the most plausible explanation for the near-fourfold jump in the non-controlling share, because it fits both timing and scale.
The report does not confirm it, however, and at least two other factors may contribute. GELEX Electric's Q3 2026 result is not in the verified sources, so GEE's contribution is unknown. GELEX's 2026 stake in GELEX Infrastructure is also unconfirmed, so GELEX's effective share of Viglacera's profit cannot be calculated. If that stake has fallen from last year, more profit flows outward even with no change in operations.
What the Q3 report leaves unanswered
The consolidated Q3 report does not say which subsidiary produced the VND 636 billion attributable to non-controlling shareholders. The answer lies in the financial statement notes and in the audited 2026 annual report. What is already clear is that this is not a one-quarter structure: after nine months, GELEX shareholders received only about 37% of consolidated net profit (VND 1,032 billion of VND 2,817 billion). The segments growing fastest, such as industrial-park infrastructure at Viglacera, sit in subsidiaries GELEX does not fully own.
What GEX holders should watch
For a GEX holder the conclusion is fairly clear: growth in revenue and consolidated profit has not yet turned into growth in earnings per share. Two conditions will decide whether that gap narrows.
The first is interest expense. As long as it stays near half of pre-tax profit, much of the extra operating profit at subsidiaries is consumed by interest before it reaches the bottom line. In the Q4 report, the signal to read is whether interest stops growing faster than pre-tax profit, and whether debt keeps swelling.
The second is where profit is generated. Profit concentrated at GEE, where GELEX holds about 76%, benefits GEX holders far more than profit concentrated at Viglacera, which passes through two layers. The ratio of profit attributable to GELEX shareholders to consolidated net profit is the simplest gauge: about 80% in Q3 2025, about 28% in Q3 2026.
The full-year reporting season will supply the complete answer. Until then, the beat on the annual plan only shows that the GELEX system as a whole is doing well. It does not show that the GEX shareholder's slice is growing.