Nova Land Investment Group Corporation (Novaland) has filed for domestic listing on the HCM Stock Exchange (HoSE), the southern stock exchange said in a statement on Wednesday.— Photo Novaland

Nova Land Investment Group Corporation (Novaland) has filed for domestic listing on the HCM Stock Exchange (HoSE), the southern stock exchange said in a statement on Wednesday.

According to HoSE, Novaland filed for listing of nearly 589.4 million shares, worth VND5.89 trillion (nearly US$262 million).

Phan Le Hoa, Novaland’s director of Capital Markets and Investor Relations, told reporters in October that Novaland was valued between $1.2-1.4 billion and the company would complete its listing in December 2016.

Of the total capital, the percentage of free-floating shares would be between 20-25 per cent and 70-80 per cent of the stake would be sold to foreign investors, Hoa said.

On Tuesday, news hub Deal Street Asia cited a report on Bloomberg which said Novaland had sold 10 per cent of the realty company’s stake worth $120 million to 18 foreign investors.

Novaland was not available for comment on the deal.

The deal is believed to be part of Novaland’s plan to raise $200 million to increase its chartered capital to VND6 trillion from VND5.22 trillion to make further investments in the real-estate sector and to conduct the company’s M&A activities.

The fund-raising may include the income from selling free-floating shares via a private placement and from converting bonds and preferential shares that the firm issued earlier.

In 2015, Novaland sold preferential shares worth $50 million to three strategic investors, including Dragon Capital and VinaCapital.

Since July 2015, Novaland has raised an additional $60 million from two investors based in Switzerland and Hong Kong.

Last year, Novaland recorded VND6.67 trillion in revenue, a yearly increase of 138 per cent, and VND442 billion in post-tax profit, an increase of 360 per cent year-on-year.

In the first half of this year, Novaland’s revenue jumped by 229 per cent from the corresponding period of last year to nearly VND5 trillion. — VNS