Sabeco (HoSE: SAB) is about to pay out nearly VND 3,848 billion as an interim dividend for 2026, set at 30% in cash.FireAnt That is less than a quarter of the nearly VND 16,134 billion in term deposits the company held at banks as of 30 September 2026.Báo Pháp luật
The profit picture needs to be read both ways. Over the first nine months, Sabeco earned nearly VND 3,761 billion after tax, up 8.9%. In Q3 alone, consolidated net profit fell 9.4% year on year.Tin nhanh Chứng khoán The balance sheet answers the question "where does the dividend cash come from" more clearly than a single quarter's income statement does.
The payout: VND 3,000 per share, paid on 2 February 2027
Under a board resolution announced on 29 October 2026, Sabeco will pay a 2026 interim cash dividend of 30%, or VND 3,000 per share. The final registration date is 29 December 2026 and payment is scheduled for 2 February 2027. With more than 1.28 billion shares outstanding, the total comes to about VND 3,848 billion, funded from undistributed after-tax profit.FireAnt
Last year Sabeco split its 2025 dividend into two payments: a 20% interim in February 2026 and the remaining 30% in August 2026, 50% in total.Báo Pháp luật This year's first interim payment is already 30%, one and a half times last year's first. The planned 2026 cash dividend is still 50%, the same as in 2024 and 2025.Tin nhanh Chứng khoán
For a SAB holder the arithmetic is simple. Anyone on the register at 29 December receives VND 3,000 per share in early February. Against the VND 42,400 close on 30 October, this interim payment alone equals about 7.1% of the share price. Most of the cash goes to two large shareholders: Vietnam Beverage (53.59%) receives nearly VND 2,062 billion and SCIC (36%) receives more than VND 1,385 billion, based on ownership at 30 June 2026.Báo Pháp luật
Three layers of cash behind the payout
Accumulated profit not yet distributed
The resolution names undistributed after-tax profit as the source. At 30 September 2026 that stood at more than VND 6,651 billion.FireAnt This is profit accumulated over many periods and not yet paid out, not just this year's earnings. After deducting about VND 3,848 billion, roughly VND 2,800 billion remains undistributed, before any Q4 profit.
So the interim payment being slightly larger than nine-month net profit does not mean Sabeco is paying out beyond its means. On the books, the company is paying from older retained profit.
Bank deposits
Undistributed profit is a figure on paper, while a dividend needs real cash. At 30 September 2026 Sabeco held cash and equivalents of nearly VND 2,392 billion, less than the amount due. But short-term term deposits stood at nearly VND 16,134 billion, 54% of total assets and about 4.2 times the interim payout, with another VND 968 billion or so in long-term deposits.FireAnt According to Tin nhanh Chứng khoán, cash and short-term financial investments total VND 18,525.6 billion, or 61.9% of total assets.Tin nhanh Chứng khoán
The liability side is light too. Total liabilities are more than VND 7,238 billion, down 24.6% from the start of the year.FireAnt Borrowings consist of just over VND 108 billion short-term and VND 166 billion long-term, so Sabeco does not need to borrow to pay the dividend.FireAnt
Those deposits also earn interest, more than VND 800 billion over nine months.FireAnt Paying out VND 3,848 billion shrinks the deposit base, and deposit income in later quarters will shrink with it. That is the cost of the payout, but a small one relative to the cash on hand.
Operating cash flow
The third layer shows whether the payout drains Sabeco's cash over the longer run. Net operating cash flow for nine months reached VND 4,124 billion, up 23.1% from VND 3,351.2 billion a year earlier.Tin nhanh Chứng khoán That exceeds net profit for the same period, meaning book profit has turned into cash, and it also exceeds the upcoming interim payout.
This is not a one-year story. Operating cash flow was VND 2,104.7 billion in 2023, VND 4,362.5 billion in 2024 and VND 3,898.9 billion in 2025.Tin nhanh Chứng khoán The deposit pile of over VND 16,000 billion was built up in years of consistently positive cash flow like these.
In other words, Sabeco is paying the dividend from cash it has already earned and deposited at banks, not from Q3 profit alone. One weaker quarter does not change its ability to pay this installment.
What pulled Q3 profit down
The core business is still growing. Q3 net revenue was more than VND 6,684 billion, up 3.8%. Gross profit was nearly VND 2,547 billion, up 6.7%, with gross margin rising from 37.1% to 38.1%. Financial income, mostly deposit interest, was over VND 292 billion, up 16.2%.FireAnt Sabeco's management said it raised prices in April and May and again in July, and those increases may have affected Q3 revenue.FireAnt
The decline came from three lines further down:
- Selling expenses rose 9.8% to more than VND 1,077 billion. For nine months, advertising and promotion alone reached over VND 1,716 billion, up about 18%.FireAnt
- Other profit fell from VND 132.9 billion to nearly VND 17.6 billion, because Q3 this year had no large one-off income.FireAnt A year earlier there were accounting effects tied to the Sabibeco transaction, which makes the comparison base high.Tin nhanh Chứng khoán
- Financial expenses were a positive VND 7 billion or so,FireAnt against a negative VND 78.2 billion in Q3 2025 thanks to a reversal that did not recur this year.FireAnt
As a result, Q3 net profit came to VND 1,271.8 billion, down 9.4%.Tin nhanh Chứng khoán Two of the three drags were one-offs from last year. The remaining one, selling expenses, is recurring and deserves closer attention.
Over nine months the picture runs the other way. Net revenue was more than VND 20,029 billion, up 5.1%, and net profit was nearly VND 3,761 billion, up 8.9%.Báo Pháp luật Nine-month gross margin rose from 35.2% to 38%.Tin nhanh Chứng khoán Sabeco has completed 76.2% of its full-year profit plan of VND 4,937 billion and 69.2% of its revenue plan of VND 28,959 billion.Báo Pháp luật
What to watch next
For this interim payment, the conclusion is fairly clear: the cash is on hand, the source is valid, and holders on the 29 December 2026 register will receive VND 3,000 per share on 2 February 2027 regardless of how Q4 trades.
What remains open is the second installment of the 2026 dividend, and the right yardstick is Q4 selling expenses against revenue growth. If revenue grows faster than selling expenses, Sabeco has grounds to meet its full-year profit plan and the 50% dividend plan has a base to hold. If selling expenses keep outpacing revenue as in Q3, full-year profit will come in near or below plan, and the size of the remaining installment will depend more on the shareholders' meeting. In both scenarios, the deposit pile of over VND 16,000 billion remains enough for Sabeco to pay without borrowing.