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FPT nears foreign ownership ceiling
Software giant FPT has nearly reached its limit of foreign ownership following heavy buys of its shares by foreign investors over the past month. Foreign ownership in the firm has exceeded 48 per cent, leaving only another 2 per cent, equivalent to 1.7 million shares, available to foreign buyers.
FPT was the most heavily-purchased share by foreign investors on the HCM City Stock Exchange throughout July, with over 4 million shares acquired at a value of about VND212 billion (US$10.3 million). A total of 7 million FPT shares were acquired by this sector in the first six months of the year.
The investment fund Red River Holdings was one of eager foreign buyers, picking up nearly 600,000 FPT shares and lifting its stake in the company to 5.76 per cent.
The strong buys also helped lift the price of FPT shares by 20 per cent last month to around VND50,000 ($2.40) a share – at a time when the VN-Index lost 6 per cent of its value overall, falling from 425 points to around 400 points.
Foreign investors have continued to demonstrate their interest in FPT in August, buying a net of VND130 billion ($6.3 million) worth of FPT shares last week.
Market watchers viewed these figures as very impressive in the context of low market volumes on the nation's two stock exchanges.
FPT was one of the 10 leading shares by capitalisation on the HCM City Stock Exchange, with a market capitalisation of around VND10 trillion ($509.7 million) as of July, and FPT was one of the key shares affecting movements of the VN-Index, noted Kim Eng Securities Co deputy director Duong Cam Da.
Many analysts believed that positive earnings results and other favourable information related to the company were the principal factors in the upswing of foreign investor interest in FPT. While other companies have been struggling, FPT reported a pre-tax profit of VND1.2 trillion ($58.3 million) for the first half of the year. Its earnings-per-share (EPS) surpassed VND3,600 during the period.
VIETNAMNEWS
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