12-year journey of FLC 'empire'

FLC of FLC Group JSC, one of the stocks bringing the most emotions to investors, has officially closed its 12-year journey in the Vietnamese stock market.

On February 14, the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HoSE) issued a decision to delist nearly 710 million of FLC shares from February 20 for the company’s serious violations of information disclosure obligations.

Responding to this information, FLC begged the regulator to reconsider the decision, saying objective reasons and the force majeure events of the company should be taken into account.

"Shaking" Vietnamese stock market

More than a decade ago, the merger of member companies gave birth to FLC Group JSC, marking the start of the FLC brand under the era of founder Trinh Van Quyet.

Under the leadership of this businessman, FLC expanded its real estate investment by conducting mergers & acquisitions (M&As) and developing a series of projects in Hanoi. It also poured trillions of Vietnamese dong (VND1 trillion = $42.33 million) into building resorts in other localities, becoming one of the leading real estate developers in Vietnam. This was also the reason for the attraction of FLC after listing.

In April 2011, FLC Group was officially approved by the State Securities Commission to become a listed company. Six months later, on October 5, 2011, it listed 10 million shares on the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX), marking its first step on the stock market.

In the early days of trading, FLC became a "phenomenon" with a spectacular price hike of 240% after three months. The ticker then plummeted and went flat for a year before making a comeback with the "game" of shifting to another bourse.

In August 2013, FLC officially moved to list 77.2 million shares from the HNX to the HoSE. Less than a year later, this stock was added to many important index baskets, typically VN30, which features 30 largest companies by capitalization. Thanks to the positive information, FLC won investor interest, with its price skyrocketing.

However, later on, FLC could not return to the peak period of its debut, but was only traded below par value. In late 2019, Trinh Van Quyet even promised to shareholders that "We will never let FLC shares be below par value in 2020 and the stock will see its value expand at least five times".

In 2020, when the stock market and businesses were affected by Covid-19, FLC once again formed a new bottom at VND2,000 ($0.09) per share, but it was still one of the most interested names in the stock market with liquidity often in the top.

In 2021, when speculative cash flowed strongly into the market, FLC and other codes in the FLC ecosystem such as ROS of FLC Faros, HAI of HAI Agrochem, AMD of FLC Stone, KLF of CFS Investment and Import Export Trading JSC, and GAB of FLC Mining Investment & Asset Management JSC rebounded strongly.

From the price worth a cup of iced tea, FLC increased 10 times to more than VND22,000 ($0.9) on January 3, 2022, helping many shareholders "come back to shore" after a decade of waiting. This stock then set a record in liquidity, with three sessions witnessing over 100 million shares changing hands.

Following its impressive climbing journey, FLC also showed a shocking slip. Quyet’s illegal sale of nearly 75 million FLC shares was discovered on January 10, 2022, when the ticker turned from the ceiling price to the floor price, starting the series of gloomy days for FLC.

Then, all tickers in FLC Group plunged to their historic bottoms. In particular, after Quyet was arrested for “manipulating the stock market”, FLC Group and its member companies were also found to have committed many serious information disclosure violations.

As a result, the stocks of the FLC family were in turn restricted and suspended from trading, and then delisted after the rescue plans failed. At the time of trading suspension on September 9, 2022, FLC dropped to VND3,570 ($0.15) per share.

When achievements fall

As a long-standing enterprise operating in the real estate sector, FLC built its brand via many large projects like the grand eco-tourism complexes in Thanh Hoa, Quang Ninh, Binh Dinh and Quang Binh provinces. The synchronous and professional implementation of projects provided positive business results for the company.

Since moving to the HoSE, the revenue of this real estate firm continuously grew year by year and set a record of nearly VND16,000 billion ($677.32 million) in 2019. It earned hundreds of billions of Vietnamese dong in profit. 2016 was considered the peak year for FLC as its pre-tax profit reached VND1,319 billion ($55.84 million), equivalent to more than one fifth of its revenue worth VND6,136 billion.

FLC's charter capital also increased sharply from VND100 billion when it was listed on the HNX to VND7,099 billion ($300 million) in 2019. Then, FLC did not raise its charter capital but focused on Bamboo Airways. Launched in 2017, this airline has quickly established its brand and reputation, joining the race with flag carrier Vietnam Airlines and low-cost Vietjet Air.

However, FLC’s aviation and tourism activities were directly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, leading to a sharp drop in its business performance in 2020-2021. The company’s 2021 revenue declined by 50%, with pre-tax profit plunging to VND163 billion ($6.9 million).

In 2022, difficulties piled up for FLC as the real estate market grew stagnant due to tightened credit and some key leaders were arrested, making it suffer losses. In less than one year, FLC Group saw 22 projects in 10 localities suspended.

Until now, this company has not released its financial statements for 2022. In the first nine months of last year, it suffered a net loss of more than VND1,800 billion ($76.18 million), with total assets of VND36,216 billion ($1.53 billion) and liabilities worth VND28,271 billion ($1.19 billion).