In the first trading session of the week on November 25, VNZ shares of VNG Corporation increased sharply by 4,800 VND to 369,000 VND/share. This is the second increase in the last 10 sessions, VNZ decreased in price in the remaining 8 sessions.

VNZ increased in price but as usual, there were very few transactions, only around a few thousand units, worth a few hundred million VND. The trading session with the highest liquidity in the past 10 sessions was on November 20 with nearly 8,500 units, worth more than 3 billion VND.

VNZ increased in price in the context of the Vietnamese stock market increasing quite strongly in the last 3 sessions and rising quite far from the psychological support threshold of 1,200 points.

At the end of the session on November 25, the VN-Index increased by 6.6 points (+0.54%) to 1,234.7 points. The HNX-Index and Upcom-Index also increased.

After the trading session, VNG announced that Mr. Vo Sy Nhan will officially resign from the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors (BOD) from November 22, according to his personal wishes. Mr. Le Hong Minh, founder of VNG, will succeed this position and be the legal representative.

Mr. Vo Sy Nhan was appointed as Chairman of the Board of Directors from December 2022. He is currently the CEO of Empire City, co-founder and CEO of GAW NP Capital fund.

Previously, VNZ had a sharp price drop, from 515,000 VND/share (on September 5) to 388,800 VND (on September 11) after VNG issued a press release updating information related to the authorities coming to work at VNG headquarters on September 6. In which, Mr. Kelly Wong, Deputy General Director, took on the position of Acting General Director.

On September 10, VNG sent a written explanation to the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) stating that Mr. Le Hong Minh is still the CEO and denied the information about appointing Mr. Wong Kelly Yin Hon to replace Mr. Minh. Mr. Kelly is only carrying out the assignment and task assigned by Mr. Minh to support the management, ensure the company's operations as well as protect the rights and interests of shareholders.

VNG has not received Mr. Le Hong Minh's resignation letter. The company's operations, production and administration are running normally.

LeHongMinh VNG.gif
Mr. Le Hong Minh. Photo: VNG

The fact that VNZ has the CEO (Wong Kelly) and CEO (Le Hong Minh) at the same time has made many investors question who is directly running VNG?

According to information from VNG at that time, Mr. Kelly Wong was the Deputy General Director of the online game division at VNG. In this position, Mr. Kelly was responsible for managing activities related to the online game business segment, and was also the person who came up with strategies and business development directions for the entire VNG.

Mr. Kelly is a Canadian citizen, originally from Hong Kong (China), and studied at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

Mr. Le Hong Minh is the founder and former chairman of the technology unicorn VNG Corporation (Vinagame) with many products: Zalo social network, ZaloPay wallet, a series of famous games Vo Lam Truyen Ky...

Mr. Minh is the largest individual shareholder of VNG. Before selling about 3.4% of his shares to BigV Company in August 2023, Mr. Minh held nearly 12.3% of the shares.

VNZ shares were listed on Upcom in early 2023, then rose to over VND1.56 million in mid-February 2023 and are currently at VND409,600/share. The peak capitalization was USD2.3 billion and is currently nearly VND12,000 billion.

Although very successful with the gaming segment and then successfully building the Zalo network, many other business projects of VNG have been facing prolonged difficulties.

In the first 9 months of 2024, VNG recorded accumulated revenue of VND 6,982 billion, adjusted net profit from business operations of VND 202 billion.

On the stock market, in the session of November 25, cautious sentiment still prevailed, but selling pressure was low, while demand was slightly higher, helping most stocks increase slightly. However, liquidity was low and decreased compared to the previous session. In total, more than 12.8 trillion VND worth of stocks were transferred on the 3 exchanges, including more than 11.9 trillion VND on HoSE.

Real estate, banking, securities, and retail stocks were quite positive. Billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong's Vinhomes (VHM) shares increased by VND1,100 to VND42,700/share with foreign investors buying more than selling. Vingroup (VIC) shares increased by VND550 to VND41,000/share. Vincom Retail (VRE) increased by VND150 to VND18,250/share.

Vietcombank (VCB) shares increased by VND700 to VND91,300/share. VietJet (VJC) of female billionaire Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao increased by VND1,100 to VND102,800/share before Tet season.

A positive signal is that foreign investors net bought for the second consecutive session after a long streak of net selling, with a record net selling of VND85 trillion since the beginning of the year.

VNG has 2 bosses at the same time, Le Hong Minh is still CEO, Wong Kelly is acting CEO: Is there anything unusual? VNG affirms that Mr. Le Hong Minh is still the CEO of VNG, and Mr. Wong Kelly is assigned to take on the position of acting CEO of VNG. Many people wonder, is this in accordance with current regulations?