Dragon Capital-linked funds continue selling shares of Vietnam steelmaker HSG

A group of funds affiliated with Dragon Capital, among the top foreign-run asset management firms in Vietnam, has unloaded another three million shares of Hoa Sen Group (HoSE: HSG) to cut their combined holding to 6.7% from 7.1%.

The transactions were made on August 21, according to a Dragon Capital note to the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE).

The funds have been net selling HSG shares since February. As of February 1, they owned 75.5 million HSG shares, or a 12.6% stake. Since then, they have net sold 34.2 million shares, including 7.6 million shares this month.

Market prices of the ticker have declined some 10% over the past month, closing flat at VND20,800 ($0.84) on Tuesday. The stock was trading at VND21,000 a share at the time of writing.

The selling came after Hoa Sen Group announced that it earned a consolidated net profit of VND273.4 billion ($10.9 million) on revenue of VND10,840 billion in Q3 of its 2023-2024 fiscal year, up 18.3-fold and 25.4% year-on-year, respectively.

According to analysts with BIDV Securities, Hoa Sen’s sales volume in Q3 of its 2023-2024 fiscal year rose 33% year-on-year, with domestic sales up 44% and exports up 23%.

The group’s profit margin improved two percentage points thanks to increased output. Financial costs fell 27% year-on-year, buoyed by lower interest rates.

The analysts forecast Hoa Sen’s Q4 performance to decline from Q3 due to lower steel prices and output due to seasonal factors.