Vietnam REE projects 2008 profit to grow 7 pct

HANOI, March 25 (Reuters) - Vietnam's leading industrial appliance maker, Refrigeration Electrical Engineering Co REE.HM, said on Tuesday it expected a 7 percent rise in gross profit this year to 420 billion dong ($26.3 million).

Ho Chi Minh City-based REE also expected 12.6 percent revenue growth to 1.1 trillion dong this year, it said in a report sent to Reuters ahead of a shareholder meeting scheduled for Saturday.

REE said its net profit rose 30.82 percent to 291 billion dong last year, when revenues grew 18.6 percent.

"Given the complicated development of the economy at home and abroad, the company will restructure its investment portfolio to minimise risks and bring in appropriate profit," REE said in the report.

The company's shares ended 4.27 percent down at 56,000 dong on Tuesday, valuing REE at around $210 million, the 16th largest of 150 listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange .VNI.

The index fell 4.69 percent to 496.64 points, an 18-month low. The index is the worst performer in Asia this year, falling 46.4 percent.

The core business of REE, one of the first two listed firms when Vietnam opened its stock exchange in 2000, is consumer, commercial and industrial air conditioning systems and refrigeration.

REE has diversified into real estate, energy and water purification systems.

It had invested 1.27 trillion dong by the end of 2007 in sectors from banking to real estate to infrastructure such as water purification and power plants and telecoms, the report said.

In 2008, REE said it would focus investment in water treatment at home and look for more projects in electricity generation and mining both inside Vietnam and in Laos.

It would start preparations for the $1-billion 1,200-megawatt Vung Ang 2 coal-fired power plant in which it has a 20 percent stake, the statement said.

Construction of the plant in central Vietnam province of Ha Tinh will start in 2009 and start operating in 2013.

REE has a 20 percent stake in the $94-million Thu Duc Water Plant outside Ho Chi Minh City slated to start supplying water in May. ($1=15,965 dong) (Reporting by Ho Binh Minh; Editing by Michael Battye)