Driven by the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into its Consumer Operating System (cOS) and a breakout performance from its high-tech materials segment, Masan Group Corporation (HOSE: MSN) achieved a record EBITDA of VND12,000 billion in the first half of 2026. This solid financial foundation gives Masan confidence to raise its full-year business outlook.

Breakout Profit Growth and a Solid Financial Foundation

Speaking at the Q2 investor conference on the afternoon of 29 July 2026, Danny Le, CEO of Masan Group, said the core consumer retail business recorded NPAT growth of 20%.

Notably, the Group's consolidated EBITDA for the first six months of the year reached VND12,000 billion, up nearly 60% year-on-year. Alongside this strong profit performance, balance sheet quality also improved significantly. Net debt/EBITDA was brought down to 2.4x, and management remains committed to its medium-term roadmap to reach an optimal safety threshold of 2.0x.

All core business segments posted double-digit revenue growth. The standout performers were the WinCommerce retail network and the Phuc Long F&B chain, both growing revenue by approximately 30%.

Among the brand and product platforms, both Masan Consumer and Masan MEATLife grew 14%. At Masan MEATLife specifically, while total revenue grew only 14.7%, weighed down by a decline in the farming segment, the company's strategic core business, branded chilled and processed meat, surged by nearly 30%.

This revenue momentum drove strong net profit margin leverage across the ecosystem. WinCommerce's profit grew 14x, Masan MEATLife's grew 3.6x, and Masan Consumer maintained steady growth of 10.2%.

Beyond the consumer segment, the key driver of the Group's outsized growth in Q2 was Masan High-Tech Materials. By fully capitalizing on the global rare metals price cycle, the company posted a 5x increase in revenue and contributed an additional VND1,660 billion to NPAT year-on-year.

Based on these results, the Group raised its full-year 2026 business targets, with revenue expected in the range of VND98,000 to 105,000 billion and NPAT in the range of VND10,000 to 11,500 billion, supported by an assessment that tungsten prices will remain solidly above USD3,000/MTU, laying the groundwork for a new growth cycle.

Doan Thi My Duyen, CFO of Masan Group, affirmed that the Group's balance sheet remains in a strong position. As of the end of Q2, Masan held VND17,500 billion in cash, with trailing 12-month free cash flow of over VND9,100 billion. While this figure declined slightly by around VND200 billion year-on-year, due to the Group's proactive reinvestment in WinCommerce's expansion and stockpiling of favorably priced tungsten ore, overall financial strength continued to grow.

The most notable highlight is that net debt/EBITDA has fallen sharply from 5.2x in 2020 to 2.4x today. Doan Thi My Duyen expressed confidence that reaching the 2.0x target by the end of this year or early next year is entirely achievable.

The Group has also successfully locked in long-term borrowings at optimized costs, at 7.9 to 8% for VND-denominated debt and 5.59% for USD-denominated debt, with a safe debt structure in which long-term debt accounts for 80%.

On capital structure, Danny Le affirmed that with substantial free cash flow from the high-tech materials segment and plans to transfer that segment's listing to HOSE, Masan has sufficient resources to meet The CrownX's USD300 million put option obligation by the end of 2027 without needing to raise additional debt.

The Strength of cOS and Its Two Core Businesses

The foundation of Masan's sustainable strength is its Consumer Operating System (cOS). Phan Nguyen Trong Huy, CFO of WinCommerce, said the chain maintained revenue growth of 27%, with like-for-like sales growth exceeding 10% for four consecutive quarters. WinCommerce's EBITDA grew nearly 52%, marking the chain's 10th consecutive quarter of margin improvement. In the first half alone, the chain opened nearly 550 new stores, concentrated mainly in the Win Rural model in rural areas, where the first-year breakeven rate exceeds 90%.

Huynh Viet Thang, Deputy CEO of Masan Consumer, highlighted the success of the Retail Supreme distribution system, which now covers 90% of the 450,000 traditional trade points of sale nationwide, significantly increasing the number of items per order. The premiumization strategy behind brands such as Chin-su and Omachi continues to deliver strong results. In line with this strategy, Masan MEATLife's processed meat segment also surged 35%, contributing significantly to a 50% quarter-on-quarter increase in EBITDA. The meat segment's strategic plan going forward is to further expand its product portfolio to deepen penetration into rural markets, fully leveraging WinCommerce's expanding network.

Optimizing Operations Through Digitalization and AI

To integrate and operate cOS seamlessly, Masan is making a major bet on digitalization and AI. Phan Nguyen Trong Huy explained that the cOS system is built on a centralized data platform designed to solve four core problems: location, product, price, and promotion. Over the past two years, the Group has devoted much of its effort to cleaning and standardizing data, laying a solid foundation for AI to operate effectively. As a result, by September 2026, approximately 90% of orders across the WinCommerce system are expected to be placed fully automatically. This reduces manual workload by 30%, saves approximately VND300 billion in operating costs annually, and significantly reduces phantom inventory.

Phan Van Hoang Son, Chief Data Officer of Masan Group, said AI is being applied directly in real-world operations. Through a location-scoring system based on population data, density, and competitive intensity, AI helps the Group make more accurate decisions on new store openings and continuously learns by feeding back field data. In addition, the AI system can now score individual products at individual stores across tens of millions of data combinations, automating merchandising and pricing decisions to maximize revenue, rather than relying on manual decisions made by broad category as in traditional retail.

An Enormous Growth Driver from High-Tech Materials

The most explosive highlight in Masan's financial results comes from Masan High-Tech Materials. According to Michael Hung Nguyen, Deputy CEO of Masan Group, this business recorded its highest profit in its 16-year operating history. This breakout performance stems from the surge in global tungsten prices, a direct result of soaring demand from AI infrastructure buildout and the defense industry. With market prices up 6.7x, the company delivered VND2,492 billion in EBITDA, bringing net debt/EBITDA down to just 2.1x, with further declines expected to below 1.0x by year-end.

Masan High-Tech Materials' strategic vision extends beyond exploiting existing resources. Michael Hung Nguyen said the Nui Phao mine has been approved for additional reserves and a mine-life extension of 20 to 30 years. At the same time, the company is raising tungsten oxide refining capacity to 8,000 to 12,000 tonnes and deepening partnerships with international mines, including South Korea's GPI, to import raw ore for further processing. As the world's largest high-tech materials production platform outside China, with inventory carrying competitive cost bases relative to market prices, the company is confident in generating approximately USD500 million in profit per quarter going forward. To maximize shareholder value from this growth trajectory, the Group is moving quickly to complete the procedures to transfer Masan High-Tech Materials' listing to HOSE by the end of this year or early next year.