State-owned construction and material producer Sông Đà Corp reportedly sold its entire stake in the Việt Nam-Italy Steel Company (VIS) on Tuesday. — Photo cafef.vn

HÀ NỘI — State-owned construction and material producer Sông Đà Corp reportedly sold its entire stake in the Việt Nam-Italy Steel Company (VIS) on Tuesday, cafef.vn reported.

Market brokers on Tuesday recorded that 26.1 million shares of the steel producer, which is listed as VIS on the HCM Stock Exchange, were traded via advance negotiations.

That number of shares were traded at the price of VNĐ12,800 (US$0.57) per share, making the transaction worth more than VNĐ334 billion ($14.85 million).

On July 29, Sông Đà Corp registered to sell the same amount of shares in VIS in order to remove its entire ownership in the steel producer. The transaction was expected to occur in August.

Sông Đà Corp had previously registered three times to sell its entire its ownership in VIS since November 2015, but transactions were not successful as the steel producer’s share prices were not high enough.

VIS, later on Tuesday, confirmed to the local media that it was Sông Đà Corp that conducted the trading to divest from the steel company.

VIS also said that Thái Hưng Trading JSC was among the firms that purchased the steel company’s shares and become a major shareholder of the company.

However, details of the transaction have not been revealed.

Sông Đà Corp and VIS declined to comment on the transaction, while officials from Thái Hưng Trading JSC were not available for comment.

Thái Hưng Trading JSC is a steel trader and producer based in the northern province of Thái Nguyên and has total fixed asset worth VNĐ4.1 trillion. The company is also said to occupy a market share of 12 per cent in the steel industry.

VIS is a steel producer based in Hà Nội. The company has recently announced a year-on-year drop of 80 per cent in its after-tax profit to VNĐ587 million in the second quarter of this year.

A sharp drop in the company’s profit came after the steel market slowed down in the second quarter, resulting in a lower sales volume for the company.

Besides, the inventories remained high as steel prices declined sharply, VIS said, and added that it made the steel firm create a defensive provision worth VNĐ23.3 billion for the inventories and receivables.

The VIS share price has jumped 21 per cent in the last five trading days, closing on Thursday at VNĐ13,800 per share. The share price has nearly tripled since March. — VNS