Vinhomes buys 19 mln shares on first day of record-breaking buyback scheme

Vinhomes JSC, the residential housing arm of private conglomerate Vingroup, bought 19.12 million shares on Wednesday, the first day of its largest-ever buyback plan on Vietnam’s stock market.

At the close on Wednesday, shares of Vinhomes, listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) as VHM, were down 2.6% at VND47,000 ($1.85) apiece, giving the firm a market value of VND205 trillion ($8.07 billion), the third largest on the bourse.

Based on the closing price, the company spent VND898.4 billion ($35.3 million) on the volume.

During the day, 33.3 million VHM shares changed hands, the second highest volume in the stock’s trade history. The transaction value was nearly VND1.6 trillion ($62.87 million). In addition, 4.1 million shares worth VND198 billion were traded via put-through.

VHM closed down 6.7% at VND43,850 ($1.72) on Thursday. The HoSE’s website was not accessible at the time of writing.

Vinhomes plans to buy back up to 370 million shares, or 8.5% of its outstanding shares, within 30 days starting October 23. The move is designed to protect its shareholders’ rights, as Vinhomes claimed that the market price is lower than its price to book value (P/B).

Under the HoSE’s rules, Vinhomes is eligible to place buy orders of between 11.1 million and 37 million shares.

At the current price level, Vinhomes is expected to spend over VND16 trillion ($628.7 million) to buy back the full 370 million shares.