<article>Consolidation, cross holding, buying and selling of stakes seems to be taking place actively for enterprises, from across sectors and geographies; pushing up share prices of some companies, to dramatically high levels.</article>

Consolidation, cross holding, buying and selling of stakes seems to be taking place actively for enterprises, from across sectors and geographies; pushing up share prices of some companies, to dramatically high levels.
Meanwhile, one of the state-owned companies has successfully concluded its initial public offering, raising expectations for the forthcoming  government-led company IPOs.
Vinachem divests from Hanoi Soap, boosting share price
Hanoi Soap, traded on the unlisted public company market as XPH, has been successively hitting its ceiling price since the Vietnam National Chemical Group (<a href="http://www.vinachem.com.vn" target="_blank">Vinachem</a>) announced its full divestment from the Hanoi-based company.
Earlier this month, Vinachem registered to sell its entire stake of 80 per cent, or nearly 10.4 million XPH shares, offering them at the starting price of VND18,000 ($0.84), per share. However, XPH market price at that time was VND6,500 ($0.3). Since January 12, XPH has been increasing limit and finally close Friday at VND16,200 ($0.76).
The divestment of Vinachem is still incomplete. As expected, Vinachem will be selling the stake to only one investor.
Shareholders buy and offload stakes in companies
Refrigeration Electric Engineering (<a href="http://www.reecorp.com" target="_blank">REE</a>) announced that it had achieved 64 per cent of its target of buying 600,000 shares of Thac Ba Hydropower (TBC). Specifically, REE managed to acquire 384,990 shares, thus increasing its holding from 58.93 per cent to 59.54 per cent, due to “unfavourable market conditions”, it said.
Meanwhile, Saigon – Hanoi Fund Management  announced that it had sold a total of 7.5 million <a href="http://www.psi.vn/" target="_blank">PetroVietnam Securities (PSI)</a> shares to reduce the ownership to just 1.94 per cent. The 7.5 million shares were representatively owned by Tran Minh Hoang, board member of PSI and CEO of the fund.
Nguyen Van Dat, chairman and CEO of Phat Dat Real Estate, has registered to buy 1 million shares of the company from January 26 to February 3 to increase his holding to almost 60 per cent.
In Vinh Phuc Infrastructure Development JSC, vice chairman Van Phung Ha has reduced his stake from 13.59 per cent to 12.99 per cent by selling 30,900 shares. The purpose of the transaction was to restructure his own investment portfolio.
Investors buy up all Hai Phong Footwear shares
About 3.4 million shares of Hai Phong Footwear were sold at its initial offering on Friday at the average price of VND10,302 ($0.48), slightly higher than the starting price of VND10,000. The highest bidding price was VND10,800. The total proceeds from the IPO reach over VND35 billion ($1.64 million).
There were no foreign investors successfully purchasing the shares.
The company has a charter capital of VND75 billion ($3.5 million). The State no longer holds shares after this IPO.
Vietnam Expressway to be privatised
The Vietnam Expressway Corporation (VEC) will be equitised this year, according to information revealed in a recent meeting by the Ministry of Transportation.
The corporation asked for permission to increase its charter capital from VND1 trillion to VND22.16 trillion prior to the equitisation. The additional value includes the State’s capital in five projects that VEC is implementing and the proceeds from bidding two charging stations.
At the meeting, deputy minister Nguyen Ngoc Dong said the overall scheme would comprise two stages, restructuring the five projects then equitising the corporation.

VN roundup: Vinachem, Hai Phong Footwear, VEC

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VN roundup: Vinachem, Hai Phong Footwear, VEC

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