Finland fund Pyn Elite becomes 3rd largest shareholder of Sao Mai Group

Finland’s Pyn Elite Fund has net purchased an additional 8.3 million shares of An Giang-based multi-sector Sao Mai Group in Jan-Feb 2024, becoming the latter's third largest shareholder.

In mid-January, Pyn Elite bought 3.75 million shares of Sao Mai Group, listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) as ASM, increasing its holding from 13.13 million shares (3.9% stake) to 16.88 million shares (5.02%).

On February 22, the fund completed the purchase of another 4.16 million ASM shares via order matching. With the price of VND11,000 ($0.45) per share that day, the transaction was valued at VND45.8 billion ($1.86 million).

Chairman Le Thanh Thuan is currently the largest shareholder of the group, holding a 19.31% stake, followed by CEO Le Tuan Anh - son of Thuan whose ownership is 11.26%.

Pyn Elite is a foreign investment fund with optimistic perspectives on the strong growth prospects of the Vietnamese stock market in the long term. It has been spending a large proportion of its investments in the fields of finance, banking and technology in Vietnam.

At the end of 2023, the five largest investments in the fund's portfolio were bank stocks STB of Sacombank, HDB of HDBank. TPB of TPBank. CTG of VietinBank. and MBB of MBBank, accounting for nearly 50% of its total investment.

These were followed by ACV of the Airports Corporation of Vietnam, VRE of Vincom Retail, SHS of Saigon-Hanoi Securities, VEA of the Vietnam Engine And Agricultural Machinery Corporation, and CMG of CMC Corp.

In late December 2023, PYN Elite Fund poured nearly VND400 billion ($16.23 million) into DNSE Securities for a 12% stake.

The same month, it also bought all 7 million undistributed shares of Deo Ca Traffic Infrastructure Investment JSC (HoSE: HHV) for VND11,000 per share, slightly more expensive than the unit price of VND10,000 price for existing shareholders.

Also in December, this fund purchased 200,000 CMG shares, increasing its ownership from 10.5 million to 10.7 million units, equivalent to 7.12% of the latter’s charter capital,

In mid-November, the fund bought 2.6 million MIG shares of Vietnam’s Military Insurance Corporation (MIC), raising its stake to 8.08%.

In 2023, Sao Mai Group, a major pangasius processor and real estate player in the Mekong Delta region, recorded VND11.97 trillion ($485.6 million) in total consolidated revenue and VND274 billion ($11.12 million) in after-tax profit, down 13% and 71.5% year-on-year, respectively.

Shares of ASM closed the Friday trading session at VND11,700 ($0.47) apiece.