The fund group managed by Dragon Capital has just announced that it has purchased a total of 4 million STB shares of Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Sacombank) in the session of November 6. Of which, CTBC Vietnam Equity Fund purchased 3 million units and Vietnam Enterprise Investments Limited (VEIL) purchased an additional 1 million units.
This "shark" fund has continuously collected more than 21.4 million shares of this private bank in the past month. From 92.7 million shares on October 19, the total ownership has increased to over 114 million shares at present, equivalent to an increase in ownership ratio from 4.91% to 6.05% according to the latest report.
The move to buy tens of millions of additional shares by foreign funds took place in the context of STB's price fluctuating strongly in the range of 27,000-30,000 VND/share. Accordingly, the amount of money Dragon Capital poured into the bank in the recent period fluctuated around 600 billion VND.
Positive business results are the fulcrum for this "shark" to be ready to pour money in. Sacombank recently announced that pre-tax profit in the third quarter reached more than VND2,085 billion, up 36% over the same period last year. Accumulated profit in the first 9 months of the year accordingly increased by 54% to VND6,840 billion, achieving 72% of the yearly plan.
Total assets increased by 10% compared to the beginning of the year to over VND651,288 billion. Total outstanding loans to customers reached VND472,073 billion, up 7.6% compared to the beginning of the year. Provision for customer loan risks increased by 18.5% to over VND6,670 billion.
However, bank shareholders are also worried when credit quality shows signs of decline, with total bad debt increasing 2.4 times compared to the beginning of the year to nearly VND10,400 billion. Including substandard debt (group 3 debt) increasing 5.2 times to more than VND2,961 billion, doubtful debt (group 4 debt) increasing 4.3 times to VND3,198 billion and debt with the possibility of losing capital (group 5 debt) increasing 40% to VND4,227 billion.
Besides banks, Dragon Capital also invested in Vinaconex construction shares (code: VCG) to become a major shareholder since early November. Dragon Capital bought an additional 1.3 million VCG shares to increase its total ownership to 27 million units, equivalent to holding nearly 5.07% of capital.
This figure accounts for half of the total foreign ownership in Vinaconex. Foreign investors have continuously bought up VCG shares, from 3.75% at the beginning of the year to about 10.5% as of now.
Dragon Capital's move was considered "bottom fishing" because VCG shares were experiencing a sharp decline from a short-term peak to below VND20,000/share at the end of October. Currently, this stock has strongly recovered to VND23,250/share (November 8).
FPT Retail’s FRT shares are also in Dragon Capital’s sights for disbursement. The foreign fund group has continuously purchased more shares from about 10.77 million shares on September 14 to 13.4 million shares on October 26, equivalent to an increase in ownership from 7.91% to over 10% at present.
Dragon Capital's net purchase of millions of shares is helping FRT shares continue to rise strongly in the context of the general market decline, even breaking the historical peak of 100,000 VND/share, 67% higher than the beginning of the year. This market price marks the first time this stock price has reached three digits and the capitalization value exceeds 13,600 billion VND.
The growth potential of the Long Chau pharmacy chain is one of the factors that helps the company attract foreign capital. The stores still maintain an average revenue per pharmacy per month of nearly VND1.1 billion. The revenue of this pharmaceutical chain is the largest contributor to FPT Retail with nearly VND4,200 billion, up 64% in the third quarter.
MBS Securities expects Long Chau to become the main growth driver and has a lot of potential. The pharmaceutical retail market still has great growth potential because there is no market leader in terms of market share, while the rapidly aging population structure of Vietnam is promoting the need for health care.
The State Securities Commission (SSC) recently issued a decision to impose an administrative fine of VND125 million on Dragon Capital Vietnam Investment Fund Management Joint Stock Company for violations in the field of securities and the securities market.
The reason for the fine is that this company violated the regulations on restrictions on employees working at securities investment fund management companies. During the period from September 2022 to December 2022, the company's employees' securities transactions were not fully reported to the internal control department before and immediately after the transaction.
Currently, Dragon Capital is the largest investment fund group in the Vietnamese stock market, with a total asset value under management in related funds of up to 4 billion USD. The largest of these is the member fund VEIL with a scale of nearly 1.6 billion USD, or the ETF fund group Diamond and VN30 also with a scale of more than 1 billion USD.
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