VTF’s shareholders on March 09 agreed to allow VinEco to purchase additional shares without the share acquisition public offer.
Accordingly, VinEco owns 25 million shares, equivalent to a 24 per cent stake in VTF. VinEco will acquire a maximum of 37.6 million shares from VTF’s shareholders to raise its shareholding up to a maximum of 60 per cent.
Vinacone just bought a 24 per cent in VTF on March 01. The deal was conducted through Vinacone’s account at Saigon Securities Incorporation (SSI).
Previously, Viet Thang was a subsidiary of Hung Vuong Corporation with a shareholding of 90.38 per cent. However, on January 08, Hung Vuong announced that it would sell more than 50 per cent of stake in VTF to solve its financial difficulties.
In addition to Viet Thang, Hung Vuong has recently sold a number of real estate assets in prime locations and transferred more than 54 per cent of stake in Sao Ta Foods Company to a group of shareholders related to SSI.
In the past years, Hung Vuong had both increased investment in aquatic product processing and expanded the farming areas.
The aquatic feed processing plants of Hung Vuong have a total production capacity of over 1.5 million tons per annum, the highest capacity in the industry and exceeding foreign producers such as Cargill, CP and Proconco.
According to Hung Vuong, VTF accounts for 30 per cent of the market share of feed for freshwater in the country.
VTF has made a huge investment in pig farms in An Giang and Binh Dinh provinces and the cattle and poultry feed processing plant in Long An province since 2016. However, the provision for these sectors resulted in a loss of VND375 billion (US$16.5 million) in 2017.
According to the report as of December 31, 2017, VTF owed a loan of over VND2.1 trillion from banks, mainly from BIDV, which accounts for 65 per cent of VTF’s total capital.
