Binh Duong Production and Trading Goods Corporation (Protrade) will make the second share sale prior to its first shareholders’ meeting expected in July, the company announced.

Protrade will auction 32.9 million shares at the minimum bidding price of VND18,000 (US$0.79) per share, a 50 per cent higher than its starting price of VND12,000 per share in the initial public offering (IPO) on March 28.

This is the number of shares that strategic investors refused to buy and not being sold out in the IPO.

Under its equitisation plan, Protrade with a charter capital of VND3 trillion ($131.6 million), equivalent to 300 million shares, sold 30 million shares, a 10-per-cent stake, to the public in the IPO while selling 119.7 million shares, a 39.91 per cent capital, to strategic investors.

However, the number of shares sold to strategic investors was 87 million shares while 200,000 shares were not sold out in the IPO.

On May 7, Protrade put 29.8 million shares on trading on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) at the initial price of VND17,400 per share.

Protrade will hold its first annual shareholders’ meeting in July after the company completed the second share sale.

Its share price rose after the announcement to VND17,500 per share on June 7 from VND16,900 apiece in the previous session.

Protrade, formerly Song Be Rubber Enterprise 3-2, was established in 1982. At present, the corporation has expanded to nine subsidiaries and 10 associated companies, operating mainly in the sectors of rubber planting, wood processing, aquaculture, golf courses, industrial park infrastructure, garment and hospital.

In its prospectus prior to IPO, Protrade reported total revenue of VND1.09 trillion in 2016, down 5 per cent year-on-year, and net profit of VND226 billion, up 6 per cent year-on-year. Its nine-month figures in 2017 were VND470.7 billion in revenue and VND317 billion in after-tax profit. – VNS