Việt Nam’s biggest bookstore chains to debut shares on UPCoM

October 30, 2018 - 19:00

Việt Nam’s biggest bookstore chain, the HCM City Book Distribution Joint Stock Company (Fahasa), will debut over nine million shares on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) on November 1 with the code FHS.

Despite its modest size, Fahasa’s share price is valued more highly than share prices of many banks on the stock market. — Photo news.zing.vn
Viet Nam News

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam’s biggest bookstore chain, the HCM City Book Distribution Joint Stock Company (Fahasa), will debut over nine million shares on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) on November 1 with the code FHS.

The reference price for the first trading day is VNĐ15,800 (US$0.68) per share, which values the company at VNĐ144 billion ($6.2 million) while its charter capital is just VNĐ91 billion.

Founded in 1976, Fahasa is the largest book distributor in Việt Nam, accounting for 60 per cent of the national market share. It has five book distributing centres that directly manage 104 bookstores in 45 provinces and cities nationwide.

In recent years, Fahasa’s sales have surpassed $100 million. Its net profit in 2017 reached VNĐ21.7 billion, up 25 per cent on-year. It has targeted total after-tax profit of VNĐ23 billion for this year.

The company has paid regular dividends of 14 per cent in cash from 2014 to date.

As of May 21 this year, Fahasa has three stakeholders holding over a 5 per cent stake, including Saigon Cultural Products Corporation (30.5 per cent) and two individuals, Phạm Minh Thuận (35.08 per cent) and Lê Thị Thu Huyền (5.15 per cent).

Despite its modest size, Fahasa’s share price is valued higher than share prices of many banks on the stock market such as Sài Gòn-Hà Nội Bank, Nam Việt Bank, Kiên Long Bank, LienVietPostBank, Sacombank and Eximbank, which have charter capital of several to dozen of trillions đồng, but their share prices are trading at between VNĐ7,000-13,000 per share. — VNS

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