Novaland board member offloads nearly 15 mln NVL shares

Novaland board member Bui Xuan Huy successfully sold off 14.79 million Novaland (NVL) shares from February 10 to 14.

NovaGroup is currently the largest shareholder in Novaland, a leading property developer in Vietnam, with a 29.4% stake.

Following the transaction, Huy, former board chairman, has reduced his holding in Novaland from more than 72.5 million units (3.723% stake) to nearly 57.8 million units (2.964%).

The transaction took place after NVL hit its floor price over three consecutive sessions to reach VND11,150 ($0.47) at Wednesday's close. Huy's transaction was worth about VND165 billion ($6.98 million).

In January, Hoang Thu Chau, NovaGroup's general director and a Novaland board member, registered to sell 2.28 million NVL shares from February 1 to March 2, citing personal reasons.

Between October 14 and November 11, NovaGroup bought 1.822 million NVL shares out of eight million shares registered. Between October 14 and November 3, Bui Cao Nhat Quan, son of NovaGroup chairman Bui Thanh Nhon, bought two million NVL shares, raising his holding at Novaland to 83.24 million shares, or 4.269% of its chartered capital.

Novaland’s board of directors recently approved a plan to issue new shares to bondholders. Under the plan, five bonds with a par value of $200,000, equivalent to more than VND23 billion owned by Citigroup Global, will be converted into shares at a price of VND85,000 ($3.43 now).

The bonds were part of 1,500 convertible bonds issued on July 16, 2021 to international investors, arranged by the Bank of New York Mellon and Credit Suisse. Citigroup Global invested $1 million in the bonds, receiving an annual coupon rate of 5.25%. The initial conversion price was VND135,700 per share, then adjusted to VND85,000 on January 19, 2022.

NovaGroup chairman Bui Thanh Nhon officially became chairman of Novaland from February 3, continuing to drive the developer’s entire restructuring process. Prior to that, he had left the position to Bui Xuan Huy to focus on NovaGroup’s business strategy.

Novaland reported consolidated after-tax profit of more than VND2,293 billion ($97.78 million) in 2022, down 34% year-on-year and meeting just 35.2% of its target. The company earned consolidated net revenue of VND11,152 billion ($475.6 million), down 25% and reaching just 31% of its target.

As of December, 31, 2022, NVL's total assets stood at more than VND257,365 billion ($10.98 billion), up 27.5% compared to the end of 2021. Of this, inventory accounted for nearly VND134,485 billion ($5.74 billion), mainly from real estate under construction with VND122,559 billion ($5.23 billion).