Vietnam's Hoa Phat projects 2008 net rises 10 pct

HANOI, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Industrial group Hoa Phat HPG.HM, Vietnam's eighth-largest listed firm, expects a 10 percent rise in net profit to 720 billion dong ($44.7 million) this year, a state-run newspaper reported on Monday.

Hoa Phat's revenues would grow further next year as a number of its project, such as a steel complex, a cement plant and a mining firm in Laos would start operations, the Securities Investment newspaper said.

Hoa Phat made a net profit of 654 billion dong last year, 98 percent above target, and revenues reached 5.64 trillion dong, the group said in a statement on its Web site (www.hoaphat.com.vn) without giving comparative figures for 2006.

The group, which made its debut on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange in November, said the cement plant, in which it and Asia Commercial Bank ACB.HN invested nearly $200 million, would start production in the northern province of Ha Nam in the third quarter of this year.

Shares in Hoa Phat opened flat at 102,000 dong ($6.33) on Monday, valuing it at $836 million, the eighth largest of the 142 firms listed on the exchange. ($1=16,105 dong) (Reporting by Ho Binh Minh; Editing by Michael Battye)