A Vinamilk farm in Đơn Dương District, Lâm Đồng Province. The company's post-tax profit gained 3.4 per cent on-year to VNĐ10.5 trillion in 2019. - VNA/VNS Photo Vũ Sinh

HÀ NỘI – Singaporean firm F&N Dairy Investment Pte Ltd has filed an offer to purchase more than 17.4 million shares in domestic dairy producer Vinamilk (HoSE: VNM).

F&N Dairy Investment plans to purchase the shares via put-through or order-matching transactions from April 8 to May 7.

If completed, the deal will increase the Singaporean firm’s ownership in Vinamilk to 18.69 per cent, equal to 325.54 million shares, from 17.69 per cent.

F&N Dairy Investment had previously offered to buy the same amount of Vinamilk shares between March 6 and April 3.

The original deal was unsuccessful and the company was only able to purchase 633,000 shares due to “unfavourable market conditions”, Vinamilk said in a filing to HoSE.

The Singaporean firm also failed to increase its stake in Vinamilk in 2019 and January 2020. In February and March, it bought six million Vinamilk shares.

Vinamilk shares edged up 0.5 per cent to trade at VNĐ95,500 (US$4.06) apiece on Monday.

The company's shares have lost 31 per cent since January 30 as the spread of the coronavirus overshadows expectations for global economic growth and hits stocks markets hard worldwide.

As the company’s shares have continued to decline, leaders at Vinamilk have reportedly registered to raise their ownership.

CEO Mai Kiều Liên is buying Vinamilk shares to up her stake by 0.03 percentage point to 0.31 per cent. Transactions started on March 24 and will end on April 23.

Director of material development Trịnh Quốc Dũng and CFO Lê Thành Liêm want to buy 200,000 shares each.

The largest dairy firm by market capitalisation, Vinamilk reported VNĐ56.3 trillion in total revenue last year, up 7 per cent year on year.

Its post-tax profit gained 3.4 per cent on-year to VNĐ10.5 trillion in 2019.

Cash and cash-equivalent assets increased by VNĐ1.14 trillion from the previous year to VNĐ2.66 trillion at the end of 2019.

Short-term savings stood at VNĐ12.4 trillion, up by VNĐ3.76 trillion from 2018.

Short-term savings, cash and cash-equivalent assets accounted for 33.78 per cent of the firm’s total assets last year, up from 27.29 per cent in 2018. – VNS