In the first nine months of 2026, Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical (BSR), operator of the Dung Quat refinery, reported consolidated net profit of VND 24,902 billion.Markettimes That is already more than BSR has reported in any full year. The Q3 balance sheet adds a second point worth reading: cash and term deposits stand at VND 58,651 billion, about 49% of total assets. This post looks at both halves of the picture, the profit that comes from the refinery and the pile of cash held at banks, plus the milestones that will show where that cash goes next.
Profit comes from the refinery
BSR's consolidated net profit was spread evenly across three quarters: VND 8,266 billion in Q1, VND 7,667 billion in Q2 and VND 8,969 billion in Q3. Q3 was about VND 1,302 billion above Q2, and the third straight quarter above VND 7,000 billion.
The driver is refining itself. Q3 revenue reached VND 59,581 billion, up about 69% year on year, while cost of goods sold rose only 45.6%. Gross profit for the quarter rose to VND 9,651 billion from VND 1,009 billion in Q3 2025, and the gross margin widened from 2.86% to 16.2%.Mekong Asean
In its explanatory note, BSR said Brent averaged USD 97 per barrel in Q3, USD 27.93 higher than a year earlier. The gap between refined-product prices and crude input prices widened, and BSR called this the main driver of the quarter.Mekong Asean Báo Lâm Đồng adds that the plant ran stably at high capacity.Báo Lâm Đồng By product, diesel contributed the most: about VND 18,838 billion in the gap between revenue and cost of goods sold over nine months, roughly 67% of consolidated gross profit.Markettimes
Deposit interest also rose, but it is a small slice. Over nine months BSR earned VND 1,811.4 billion in deposit interest, almost double the same period last year.VietNamNet That is about 7% of nine-month net profit. Roughly 93% comes from the refinery's operations.
The VND 58,651 billion deposit balance
On September 30, 2026, BSR held VND 1,758 billion in cash and equivalents, plus VND 56,893 billion in short-term held-to-maturity investments, mainly term deposits. Together that is VND 58,651 billion, about 49% of total assets of VND 120,135 billion.Mekong Asean At the start of the year the two items totaled VND 43,762 billion, so they have grown by about VND 15,000 billion, or 34%, in nine months.
The money is spread across several banks. Per the notes to the financial statements as cited by Người Quan Sát, term deposits of over 3 to 12 months stood at VND 12,425 billion at BIDV, VND 10,539 billion at VietinBank and VND 6,390 billion at SHB.Người Quan Sát Other banks hold VND 27,538 billion, 2.1 times the start-of-year level.Vnbusiness
The cash flow statement shows how the money moved. Operating cash flow over nine months was positive VND 14,483 billion, against about VND 267 billion a year earlier. Investing cash flow was negative VND 21,845 billion: new deposits and loans of VND 68,146 billion, VND 48,161 billion collected back, and VND 3,155 billion spent on fixed assets. On the financing side, BSR borrowed another VND 3,021 billion and paid out VND 1,504 billion in dividends.
Operating cash flow and receivables
Operating cash flow of VND 14,483 billion equals about 58% of net profit for the same period. The gap mostly sits in receivables. Short-term trade receivables reached VND 22,865 billion, up nearly 78% from the start of the year. Petrolimex owes VND 8,509 billion and PVOIL VND 4,999 billion, together about VND 13,500 billion, or roughly 59% of trade receivables. Changes in receivables reduced operating cash flow by about VND 18,976 billion over nine months.Markettimes
Alongside the deposits, BSR does carry debt. Short-term borrowings and finance leases at September 30 were VND 13,525 billion, and all outstanding debt is short-term.Mekong Asean Interest expense over nine months was VND 267.5 billion.VietNamNet After subtracting debt, cash and deposits still come to about VND 45,126 billion.
Per share
BSR's charter capital is VND 50,073 billion, equal to about 5.007 billion shares.Mekong Asean Dividing VND 58,651 billion by that share count gives about VND 11,700 of cash and deposits behind each share. Net of debt, the figure is about VND 9,000.
BSR closed at VND 27,100 on November 2. The gross cash pile is therefore about 43% of the share price, and the net figure about one third. The rest is what the market assigns to the refinery and to future years of earnings. This split lets you read the two parts of the balance sheet differently: income on the deposits follows deposit rates, while the refinery follows the refining margin.
The VND 2,735.6 billion at MBV
Not all of the cash is available immediately. The report records a deposit of VND 2,735.6 billion at Modern Bank of Vietnam (MBV), Quang Ngai branch, formerly Ocean Bank, which is under suspended transactions.Điện tử Ứng dụng The provision for this group of term deposits is zero. BSR's executive board expects the deposit to become tradable again once the State Bank of Vietnam issues specific rules.Người Quan Sát
This is not new. VTC News reported in early 2019 that BSR's deposit of more than VND 2,700 billion at Ocean Bank's Quang Ngai branch had been frozen since late 2018.VTC News It equals about 4.7% of today's cash and deposits, or roughly VND 550 per share.
How 2027 differs from 2026
BSR forecasts an average refining margin of about USD 32 per barrel for 2026 and about USD 23 for 2027, a drop of roughly 28%.VietNamNet The refinery also plans a full maintenance shutdown in 2027, expected to last about 32 days, which may weigh on output in the short term. Both factors hit the refinery's earnings, not the cash already on deposit.
The cash does have one clear call on it. The upgrade and expansion of the Dung Quat refinery has a signed engineering, procurement and construction contract worth about USD 989 million over 37 months.Người Quan Sát At September 30, construction in progress for the project was VND 2,137.7 billion, alongside VND 2,120.1 billion in advances to China Chengda Engineering and VND 481.1 billion to Beijing Petrochemical Engineering. Both advances were zero at the start of the year.Điện tử Ứng dụng
Against the plan, full-year 2026 net profit is budgeted at about VND 2,162 billion, and nine months have already reached about 11.5 times that. Undistributed after-tax profit at September 30 was VND 27,822 billion.Mekong Asean
Milestones to watch
The current picture has two separate parts. The deposits, about VND 11,700 per share, already sit on the balance sheet and move with interest rates and with how the company uses the money. The refinery profit follows the refining margin, which BSR itself expects to fall in 2027. The two respond to different factors and are best read separately.
Three milestones will show where the cash goes. The Q4 2026 report will show whether the receivables from Petrolimex and PVOIL are collected, meaning whether operating cash flow catches up with profit. The pace of disbursement on the expansion project will show how much deposit money is drawn down to build the plant. The 2026 profit distribution plan put to the 2027 shareholders' meeting will show how much of the pile reaches shareholders as dividends.
In the first scenario, if Q4 operating cash flow exceeds Q4 net profit, the deposit pile keeps growing even as the refining margin starts to ease. In the second, if receivables keep rising, cash collected falls short of reported profit and the deposit pile grows more slowly. What separates the two is how quickly BSR collects from its two largest customers.