Leaders of An Phát Holdings Group strike the gong on its listing at Hồ Chí Minh City Stock Exchange (HOSE). — Photo courtesy of An Phát Group

HCM CITY — An Phát Holdings Group on Tuesday listed 132.6 million shares on the Hồ Chí Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE).

The shares coded APH were traded at a starting price of VNĐ41,500 (US$1.79) each and rose to the ceiling price of VNĐ49,800 per share after the at-the-opening-order (ATO) session.

An Phat matched a total of 225 million shares on the first trading day and was valued at more than VNĐ6.6 trillion (US$281 million). This made An Phát Group become the firm with the highest market capitalisation in Việt Nam’s plastic sector.

The valuation was also reflected through the successful auction of 4.3 million shares at HOSE in June with an average auction price of VNĐ50,018 each, double the starting price.

An Phát Group said investors saw the potential of APH's green products and its large scale market both domestically and internationally, which was why they paid a price higher than the starting price at the IPO as well as after being officially listed on HoSE.

Speaking at the listing ceremony, Đinh Xuân Cường, the group’s vice chairman of management board said: “In 2020, An Phát Holdings aims to completely focus on biodegradable product lines so that the autonomy of green materials - the most important factor for product prices, is a top priority. We have solved this problem by the IPO to raise capital to build the first fully biodegradable plant in Việt Nam, AnBio.”

With the listing on HOSE, APH hopes to attract more investors, both local and foreign.

The AnBio plant would make APH one of the few companies that produce fully biodegradable materials in the world along with BASF, Novamont, NatureWorks and Total Corbion. It would also change APH's position to be both a manufacturer and supplier of green materials. APH is the only Vietnamese enterprise that owns the patent for fully biodegradable material.

The autonomy of raw materials would help APH reduce product costs, expand the market while saving production costs about 30 per cent for subsidiaries while the parent company still enjoys a gross profit margin of 25-30 per cent of this project. APH targeted that fully biodegradable products would contribute 40-50 per cent to the group's packaging revenue structure by 2030.

The AnBio plant, with a total investment of VNĐ1.5 trillion, is expected to start construction in the northern port city of Hải Phòng at the beginning of 2021. It is scheduled to come into operation by the end of 2022 with a capacity of 20,000 tonnes of products a year.

After nearly 20 years of operation, An Phát Holdings has become the largest producer and exporter of packaging film in Southeast Asia. The group has expanded its business with 15 member companies spread across Viet Nam and its branches in countries such as Singapore, South Korea, France and the US. APH operates mainly in the fields of completely biodegradable products and materials, packaging, engineering and interior plastics, precision engineering and moulds, materials and chemicals in the plastic industry and real estate.

Last year, its consolidated revenue and after-tax profit reached VNĐ9.5 trillion and VNĐ712 billion respectively, representing 19 per cent and 305 per cent year-on-year increases. Its total assets reached nearly VNĐ10 trillion.

It has targeted net revenue and profit of VNĐ12 trillion and VNĐ650 billion respectively this year. In the long term, APH’s growth momentum will come from fully biodegradable products through investment in the AnBio plant. — VNS