Tien Phong Plastic plans to lift foreign ownership cap

A Tien Phong Plastic Joint Stock Company plant in the central province of Nghe An - Photo: vneconomy.vn

The final decision will be made at the company’s extraordinary shareholders meeting, scheduled for November 30.

The management board will need to obtain approval of 65 percent of shareholders for the change. The plan came after the company announced the Thai plastic producer Nawaplastic Industries (Saraburi) Co Ltd offloaded its 21.27 million shares or 23.84 percent ownership in the Vietnamese plastic firm on the stock market (traded under the code NTP) between September 25 and October 12.

Tien Phong Plastic is trading its 89.2 million shares on the Hanoi Stock Exchange for 69,000 VND (3.06 USD) to 71,900 VND per share during the September 25-October 12 period.

That means the Thai-based plastic producer sold its share for 1.46 trillion VND (roughly 65 million USD), triple its initial investment in 2012. The State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC), which represents the Government to monitor the State’s capital in Tien Phong Plastic, remains the biggest shareholder with a 37.1 percent stake.

During the 14-trading-day period, there were many put-through trading transactions for Tien Phong Plastic’s shares with volume ranging from one to nine million and share price varying between 69,300 VND to 71,800 VND per share. The identity of the largest buyer has remained confidential, however, it is believed that a foreign investor is buying up the shares. NTP closed on October 19 at 73,000 VND per share, having increased by a quarter since its one-year low of 57,600 VND per share in early March. During the five-year investment period, Saraburi received around 173 billion VND worth of dividend payouts from the Vietnamese firm.

After Saraburi completed withdrawing from Tien Phong Plastic, the two representatives of the Thai company on October 17 asked for the resignation of the Vietnamese firm’s management and supervisory boards. Tien Phong Plastic will also discuss the restructuring of the firm’s management and supervisory boards at the upcoming shareholder meeting.

The company also plans to make a 15 percent advance dividend payout for 2017 performance on November 29. In the third quarter of 2017, Tien Phong Plastic recorded nearly 161 billion VND in its pre-tax profit, a yearly increase of 83.3 percent. In nine months, the company earned total 363 billion VND in pre-tax profit, an annual rise of 27.6 percent.