Vinhomes spends $412.4 billion on record buyback

Vinhomes JSC, the largest housing developer in Vietnam, spent VND10,482 billion ($412.39 million) on purchasing back its shares in the largest corporate buyback in the country so far.

The company bought back 246.96 million shares, listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) as VHM, at an average price of VND42,444.36 ($1.67) apiece, it said in a release on Tuesday.

In early August, Vinhomes announced a plan to buy back up to 370 million shares from October 23 to November 21 to safeguard the rights of itself and its shareholders as VHM market prices were below the “real value” of the company.

Techcom Securities acted as the agent to execute the buyback.

After the buyback, the company's voting shares stand at 4.107 billion. As such, its charter capital will reduce to VND41,074 billion ($1.62 billion) from VND43,544 billion.

During Vinhomes’ buyback transactions, foreign investors net sold nearly 91 million VHM shares, valued at VND3.8 trillion ($149.5 million).

VHM shares soared to a one-year peak after the company unveiled the buyback before fluctuating strongly during the one-month transactions.

At Tuesday’s close, VHM shares were down 0.7% at VND42,400 ($1.67), 12% lower than the one-year peak but 23% above the historic bottom.

Vinhomes now has a market cap of VND184.63 trillion ($7.26 billion), the fifth highest on the HoSE after Vietcombank, BIDV, FPT Corp, and VietinBank.

Its parent firm, Vingroup, ranks ninth with a market value of VND156.96 trillion ($6.18 billion).