Steel producer Hoa Phat Group (HoSE) facility in Hai Duong Province. — VNA/VNS Photo Danh Lam

Steel producer Hoa Phat Group on Monday listed an additional 552 million shares to increase its total to more than 3.31 billion shares.

The shares will be available for trading on August 31. They were issued as part of the company’s plan to pay a share dividend for the 2019 financial year.

At the company’s annual shareholder meeting on June 25, Hoa Phat decided to issue share and cash dividends at rates of 20 per cent and 5 per cent, respectively.

The additional listing valued the firm at more than VND82 trillion (US$3.54 billion), placing it among the top 10 largest business by market capitalisation.

Hoa Phat shares, listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE) as PHG, gained 1.8 per cent to end Monday at VND24,800 apiece.

Hoa Phat has signed some contracts this month to export high-quality rolled steel to Africa, expanding its export markets.

The company will produce 30,000 tonnes of rolled steel at its facility in Hai Duong Province and shipments will depart for Kenya and Ghana in September and October, respectively.

In January to July, Hoa Phat exported a total of 160,000 tonnes of high-quality rolled steel, up 2.3 times year-on-year.

Key export markets included the US, Japan, Canada, China, Australia, the Republic of Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, the Philippines and Singapore.

In the first half of 2020, the company recorded a 7 per cent year-on-year increase in its stockpile. Its inventory provision also jumped 45.6 per cent from the beginning of the year to more than VND100 billion on June 30.

The company kept its doubtful short-term debts at VND37.7 billion in the first six months, almost unchanged from the start of the year.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Hoa Phat recorded VND5.06 trillion worth of total post-tax profit in the first six months of the year, up 31 per cent year-on-year. — VNS