HAGL boss to sell 35 million shares to restructure loan

Chairman Doan Nguyen Duc of agricultural giant Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) will sell 35 million shares to restructure a company loan.

The shares, registered under the ticker HAG, amount to a 3.8 percent stake in the agricultural firm, approximately. They will be sold via the put through option, according to filings with the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE). They will be transferred to undisclosed buyers on November 12-13.

Based on the current market price of HAG shares, the value of the deal is estimated at over VND157 billion ($6.77 million). If it goes through, Duc’s ownership will be reduced to 342 million shares, or 36.85 percent of Hoang Anh Gia Lai’s capital.

The HAGL chairman had bought 50 million HAG shares through the put-through option on October 29. The order was executed at VND4,800 ($0.21) per share for a total value of VND240 billion.

At the end of Wednesday’s trading session, HAG shares were trading at VND4,470, down 1.11 percent compared to the previous day.

In the past three months, HAGL has recorded a net revenue of VND700 billion, up nearly 26 percent year on year, thanks to bigger fruit harvests. However, losses incurred in selling goods and a sharp decline in financial activities led to an after-tax loss of VND568 billion, the biggest quarterly loss in a year. It was also the company’s sixth consecutive loss-making quarter.

HAGL’s cumulative revenue for the first nine months this year was VND2.17 trillion, up 47.3 percent over the same period last year, and the after-tax loss of over VND700 billion was down 14.9 percent.

Fruit continued to account for the biggest proportion of its revenue structure at 80 percent, followed by services, rubber, and other products, according to the group’s latest financial statements.

HAGL, once the leading real estate firm in Vietnam, has been growing fruits and vegetables since 2016. It mainly grows passion fruit, bananas, dragon fruit and chili. Its main markets are China and Thailand.