Vinhomes spends $276 mln on buying back 162 mln shares, more than half to go

Vinhomes, the largest housing developer in Vietnam, has spent around VND7 trillion ($275.7 million) on implementing its record buyback plan since kick-starting it on October 23.

As of Friday, the developer, listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange as VHM, had purchased back 162.32 million shares, or 43.87% of the registered 370 million units, exchange data showed.

On Thursday, there was a put-through transaction of 15.77 million VHM shares for VND636.3 billion ($25 million) between a foreign seller and a domestic buyer.

The firm has seven days left to buy back 207.7 million shares to meet its goal, or 29.7 million units a day on average. According to regulations, it is eligible to place buy orders of between 11.1 million and 37 million shares a day.

Vinhomes, a subsidiary of private conglomerate Vingroup (HoSE: VIC) said the buyback was meant to safeguard the rights of itself and shareholders, given that the market price was below its P/B.

VHM shares closed down 0.25% at VND40,250 ($.59) on Friday. The shares have lost 16.6% in value since Vinhomes started its buyback plan, but are still 16.6% higher than a historic low in early August.

VHM has a market value of VND175.26 trillion ($6.9 billion), ranking fifth on the HoSE after three state-controlled banks, namely Vietcombank (VCB), BIDV (BID), and VietinBank (CTG), and tech giant FPT. Its parent firm Vingroup ranked ninth with a market cap of VND155 trillion.