VNG data centre building in HCM City. Photo courtesy of the company

HÀ NỘI — VNG Corporation has registered to trade 35.8 million VNZ shares on UpCOM from January 5, of which 28.7 million shares are outstanding and 7.1 million treasury shares, according to the Hà Nội Stock Exchange (HNX).

The reference price on the first trading day of VNZ shares is VNĐ240,000 a share (US$10.18). At the price, VNG has a market capitalisation of nearly VNĐ8.6 trillion, which is less than $350 million, much lower than VNG's previous billion-dollar valuation.

According to the information disclosure, as of November 28 last year, the company has three major shareholders, which are VNG Limited holding 49 per cent of its charter capital, 61.1 per cent of its outstanding shares, BigV Technology JSC holding 4.6 per cent of its charter capital, and Lê Hồng Minh holding 9.8 per cent of its charter capital, 12.3 per cent of its outstanding shares.

VNG's 2022 Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders approved the sale of all 7.1 million treasury shares to BigV Technology Joint Stock Company (BigV) at a price of VNĐ177,881 per share. If VNG successfully sells these treasury shares to BigV, BigV will increase its ownership rate in VNG to 24.42 per cent of charter capital.

VNG Corporation is a technology company, specialising in digital content, online entertainment, social networking, and e-commerce. It focuses on four main businesses, which are online games, platforms, digital payments, and cloud services.

In the first nine months of 2022, VNG’s revenue reached VNĐ5.76 trillion, of which the largest contribution was online game services (nearly VNĐ4.1 trillion), followed by online advertising services (VNĐ933 billion) and added value services on telecommunications networks and the Internet, including Zalopay and VNG Clouds (VNĐ683 billion). Music services and song copyright (ZingMP3) only account for a small proportion of VNĐ21 billion.

During the period, it posted a loss of VNĐ764 billion, with the parent company losing VNĐ419.3 billion. The loss was due to the investments in Zion JSC (the owner of the ZaloPay e-wallet) and Tiki JSC.

On separate financial statements, as of September 30, VNG invested more than VNĐ4.4 trillion in subsidiaries and associates, an increase of 73.9 per cent compared to the beginning of the year.

Specifically, the investment in Zion JSC accounted for the largest proportion, with a value of over VNĐ2.56 trillion and a provision of nearly 2.3 trillion.

VNG was valued at $1 billion in 2014, becoming the first unicorn in Việt Nam, according to the World Startup Report. In 2019, VNG was valued at $2.2 billion by the Singapore government's Temasek investment fund, which was equivalent to VNĐ1.8 million a share. 

In 2021, Mirae Asset Fund Management Company bought VNG shares at a price of VNĐ1.7 million per share. — VNS