Dragon Capital ownership at Sacombank rises to 5.25%

Dragon Capital, a leading fund management company in Vietnam, has completed the purchase of 5.1 million Sacombank (STB) shares, raising its ownership at the lender to 5.25% from 4.98%.

Specifically, three member funds of Dragon Capital sold 900,000 STB shares, while three other member funds bought more than 6 million. In total, this fund group net bought 5.1 million STB shares, raising its holdings from more than 93.9 million units to over 99 million.

Based on the average trading value of STB shares in the December 5 session, Dragon Capital Group may have spent nearly VND114 billion ($4.79 million) to become a major shareholder in Sacombank.

After the transactions, the STB stock price dropped sharply for two consecutive sessions, including one to its floor price. On the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HoSE), its price closed the Thursday session at VND21,700 ($0.9) per unit .

Established in 1991, Sacombank was one of the first joint stock commercial banks in HCMC. In the first nine months of the year, the private bank reported pre-tax profits of VND4,440 billion ($186 million), fulfilling 84.1% of the year's target. Interest accounted for 60.6% of its total revenues.

Meanwhile, explaining the recent move to strongly buy a series of stocks, a source from Dragon Capital said that in its investment portfolio there will be stocks with long-term goals and many with shorter-term goals.

The fund's portfolio has investments that are cyclical in nature and need to be weighed down at the end of the growth cycle. The fund trades often because it needs to change its strategy given influencing factors, the source added.