Vietnam Dairy Products JSC (Vinamilk, HoSE: VNM) has released its Q3 2026 consolidated financial statements, reviewed by KPMG. Net profit attributable to parent-company shareholders came in at VND 2,964 billion, up 17.3% year on year, while net revenue rose 8.7% to VND 18,465 billion.Vietstock Profit grew about twice as fast as revenue, which raises an obvious question: which lines of the income statement account for the gap?
Before going line by line, it helps to set the quarter against the full nine months. Cumulative net revenue for the three quarters was VND 53,461 billion, up 14.5%, and after-tax profit was VND 8,605 billion, up 30.6%. Vinamilk has completed 80.4% of its revenue target and 87.6% of its profit target from the plan approved at the 2026 annual general meeting.Vietstock The sections below isolate Q3 to see where the extra profit came from, then return to the nine-month numbers.
Sales: still growing, but slower than in the first half
At the first layer, milk sales grew in both markets. Q3 domestic revenue was VND 14,718 billion, up 8.8%. Overseas revenue was VND 3,747 billion, up 8.3%, with exports to customers outside the group nearly flat at VND 1,805 billion. The overseas gain came mainly from subsidiaries: Angkor Milk in Cambodia posted revenue up 42.4% and after-tax profit up 73.6%, while Driftwood in the US came in below last year on a lower average selling price.Vietstock
The 8.7% growth in Q3 is clearly slower than the 14.5% for nine months. Subtracting Q3 from the nine-month total puts first-half revenue at about VND 34,996 billion, up roughly 18% (Investify's calculation from reported figures). Sales momentum, in other words, slowed as the company entered the third quarter.
Gross margin also stopped improving. Q3 gross profit was VND 7,637 billion, up 8%, for a margin of 41.4% against 41.6% a year earlier. According to the report, the cause is rising input costs: raw-material costs in production over nine months rose almost 33%, faster than revenue.Vietstock The nine-month gross margin is 42.5%, above the 41.3% of a year earlier. Working backwards from these two figures, the first-half gross margin was about 43%, roughly 1.6 percentage points above Q3.
Expenses: most of the extra gross profit was used up
Q3 gross profit rose by VND 566 billion year on year. According to the report, most of that went to cover higher expenses:
- Selling expenses of VND 3,885 billion, up 8.7%, still around 21% of revenue. The absolute increase is about VND 310 billion (calculated from the growth rate).
- General and administrative expenses of VND 538 billion, up 15.6%, an increase of about VND 73 billion.
- Financial expenses of VND 151 billion, up 66%, of which interest expense was VND 99 billion, an increase of about VND 60 billion.Vietstock
Together, the three expense lines rose by about VND 440 billion, close to eight-tenths of the gross profit increase. The profit from sales left after selling and administrative costs rose by only about VND 180 billion year on year.
The two lines that make the difference
Q3 pre-tax profit was VND 3,694 billion, up VND 568 billion.Vietstock If sales after expenses contributed only about VND 180 billion, the rest came from two lines that sit outside selling milk.
The first is financial income, at VND 600 billion, up 52%, or about VND 205 billion more. It is tied to the large cash pile Vinamilk holds: at the end of Q3, cash, cash equivalents and term deposits stood at almost VND 26,940 billion, or 46.5% of total assets. The breakdown of financial income is given for nine months: of VND 1,413 billion, VND 1,179 billion was deposit interest and VND 144 billion was foreign-exchange gains.Vietstock
The second is associates and joint ventures. In Q3 this segment earned almost VND 41 billion, against a loss of almost VND 195 billion a year earlier, an improvement of about VND 236 billion. Over nine months, associate income was almost VND 140 billion, versus a loss of almost VND 175 billion a year earlier. Most of the nine-month gain came from Asia Coconut Processing JSC, in which Vinamilk holds 24.96%; the equity-method carrying value of the investment rose from VND 281 billion to VND 403 billion.Vietstock
Combined, and after deducting the extra financial expenses, these two lines contributed about VND 380 billion, roughly two-thirds of the Q3 rise in pre-tax profit. Vietstock's analysis lines up the quarter's three drivers the same way: a domestic recovery, sharply higher financial income and profitable associates. Q3 after-tax profit came to VND 2,962 billion, net margin rose to 16% from 14.8%, and quarterly EPS was VND 1,265.Vietstock
Over nine months, sales remain the main source of growth
Reading Q3 alone, one might assume most of the full-year profit gain also came from deposits and associates. The nine-month figures say the opposite. Gross profit for the three quarters rose almost VND 3,470 billion, far above the VND 1,259 billion rise in selling expenses, and selling expenses as a share of revenue fell from 22.4% to 21.9%. Domestic gross margin rose from 41% to 43.1%, which the report attributes to higher volumes and a shift in product mix toward value-added lines. Nine-month overseas revenue grew 27.9% to VND 12,148 billion.Vietstock
Against that nearly VND 3,470 billion gain in gross profit, the improvements in financial income (up 24% over nine months) and in associates (about VND 315 billion) are much smaller. Nine-month pre-tax profit was VND 10,608 billion, up 29.8%. Net operating cash flow was VND 7,746 billion, up 10.5%. Inventories rose 14.4% to VND 7,469 billion, mostly raw materials and finished goods according to the report, in line with a larger business.Vietstock
At listed subsidiary Moc Chau Milk (HoSE: MCM), Q3 revenue fell 3.5% to VND 693 billion while after-tax profit rose 39.7% to VND 39 billion, helped by a change in revenue mix and a lower operating-expense ratio.Doanh nhân & Pháp luật
Q4 will answer the gross-margin question
The gap between Q3 and the nine-month picture does not show earnings quality deteriorating. It shows something more specific: in Q3 sales still grew but more slowly, gross margin stopped improving as raw-material prices rose, and so more of the gap between profit and revenue came from two lines that do not move with the volume of milk sold. Deposit interest follows cash balances and interest-rate levels. Associate income follows the results of companies in which Vinamilk holds only a minority stake.
The most useful number to watch when Vinamilk reports its 2026 annual statements is therefore the standalone Q4 gross margin. If it climbs back toward the roughly 43% of the first half, Q3 was just one quarter of expensive inputs. If it stays near 41.4%, the higher cost base has entered cost of goods sold, and sales will need faster volume growth to keep profit on pace. To reach the full-year after-tax profit plan of VND 9,828 billion, Vinamilk needs about VND 1,223 billion more in Q4, far below the VND 2,962 billion of Q3 alone.Vietstock
For anyone holding VNM, the interim dividend of VND 2,500 per share, payable on 26 November 2026, has already been announced and does not depend on Q4 results.Vietstock Undistributed after-tax profit at the end of Q3 stood at VND 12,437 billion. The annual report will show which of the two margin marks the fourth quarter lands closer to.