Tech unicorn VNG CEO registers to sell nearly 1 mln shares

General director and board member Le Hong Minh has registered to sell 983,783 VNZ shares to reduce his ownership from 12.27% to 8.85%, Vietnamese tech giant VNG Corporation announced.

The transaction is expected to be executed through the agreement method from August 21-31.

Temporarily calculated according to the VNZ price on Friday at VND1.08 million ($45.3) per share, Minh is expected to earn VND1,063 billion ($44.5 million).

Founded in 2004 by Le Hong Minh, 45 now, VNG is a leading technology services provider in Vietnam. In 2014, it was officially valued at $1 billion in the World Startup Report, becoming the first unicorn in Vietnam.

The corporation in January named Vo Sy Nhan as its new chairman, replacing Le Hong Minh. Minh remains its general director.

VNG reported after-tax profit of VND50.2 billion ($2.1 million) in the second quarter of this year, its first profit since the fourth quarter of 2021. VNG's net revenue reached nearly VND2.25 trillion ($94.6 million) in the period, up 12.4% year-on-year, according to the company's consolidated Q2 financial statement.

The company's profit from joint ventures and associates continued to record a loss of VND22.14 billion ($932,600), while in the same period last year it made a loss of VND47.34 billion ($1.99 million).

In the first six months of the year, VNG, registered on the unlisted public company market UPCoM as VNZ, posted net revenue of VND4.1 trillion ($172.6 million), up 11.9%, and after-tax profit of VND39.9 billion ($1.68 million).

As of June 30, 2023, the company had recorded accumulated losses at its joint ventures and associates of VND751.3 billion ($31.6 million), mainly from Tiki Global with a loss of VND510.1 billion ($21.5 million).

As of June 30, VNG's total assets stood at VND9.57 trillion ($403 million), up 7.5% compared to the beginning of the year. Of which, cash and cash equivalents were VND3.46 trillion ($145.5 million), up 31%, and fixed-assets hit VND2.27 trillion ($95.7 million), up 89%.

VNG has targeted revenue of VND9.28 trillion ($394.5 million) and a loss of VND572 billion ($24.3 million) in 2023.

VNG's management said that this year, it will continue to invest in key business segments such as video games, advertising, e-wallets and especially products that use artificial intelligence. Therefore, it has proposed not to pay dividends from the accumulated profit of more than VND5 trillion ($212.5 million) it held as of the end of last year.