HÀ NỘI — Masan Consumer Corporation will close its final list of shareholders on November 14 to prepare for its stock market debut on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM).

After closing the list, Masan Consumer, Việt Nam’s largest food and beverages producer, will undertake other required procedures, such as depositing shares and filing the listing application on the UPCoM.

“The company will put off all share transfers until its shares are officially trading on the UPCoM,” it said in a statement.

UPCoM, which went live in June 2010, is a market for unlisted or delisted public companies under the management of the Hà Nội Stock Exchange. It now has 366 stocks with a total market capitalisation of around VNĐ170 trillion (US$7.6 billion).

Masan Consumer has a charter capital of around VNĐ5.4 trillion ($242 million), equivalent to 538.2 million shares. Its parent company, Masan Consumer Holdings, holds 499.9 million shares, or 96.1 per cent of its voting shares. Masan Consumer itself has 18 million shares as treasury stocks. The remaining 20 million shares are freely transferable in the market.

In January 2016, Masan Consumer Holdings paid around $780 million to purchase 97.7 million shares of Masan Consumer at VNĐ179,000 per share.

If the company debuts shares on the UPCoM at this price, its market capitalisation will hit VNĐ93 trillion ($4.2 billion), which is three times higher than the market value of Hà Nội Beer Alcohol and Beverage Joint Stock Corporation (Habeco), the biggest listed stock on the UPCoM at VNĐ29 trillion.

Masan Consumer is one of the largest local fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies. It manufactures and distributes a wide range of food and beverage products, including soya sauce, fish sauce, chilli sauce, instant noodles, instant coffee and popular bottled beverages such as Chin-su, Nam Ngư, Tam Thái Tử, Omachi, Kokomi, Vinacafé and Vĩnh Hảo.

The company exports to the United States, Canada, France, Russia, Germany, China, Middle East and other Asian countries.

In the first nine months of this year, Masan Consumer earned VNĐ9.1 trillion in total revenue and VNĐ1.65 trillion in net profit, up 6 per cent year-on-year in revenues but down 4 per cent year-on-year in profits.

Many companies have recently opted to list their shares on the UPCoM because of the advantages of a central and transparent trading platform, but with lower listing standards compared to the HCM Stock Exchange and Hà Nội Stock Exchange.

Four companies – Đồng Nai Material & Building Investment Joint Stock Company (DND), Central Plant Protection Joint Stock Company No.1 (BT1), Quảng Bình Railway Joint Stock Company (QBR) and Trà Vinh Urban Project Joint Stock Company (TVU) – debuted shares on the UPCoM on Thursday, with a total listing of nearly 18 million shares. — VNS