Viet Nam’s biggest bookstore chain, the HCM City Book Distribution Joint Stock Company (Fahasa), will debut over nine million shares on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) on November 1 with the code FHS.

The reference price for the first trading day is VND15,800 (US$0.68) per share, which values the company at VND144 billion ($6.2 million) while its charter capital is just VND91 billion.

Founded in 1976, Fahasa is the largest book distributor in Viet Nam, accounting for 60 per cent of the national market share. It has five book distributing centres that directly manage 104 bookstores in 45 provinces and cities nationwide.

In recent years, Fahasa’s sales have surpassed $100 million. Its net profit in 2017 reached VND21.7 billion, up 25 per cent on-year. It has targeted total after-tax profit of VND23 billion for this year.

The company has paid regular dividends of 14 per cent in cash from 2014 to date.

As of May 21 this year, Fahasa has three stakeholders holding over a 5 per cent stake, including Saigon Cultural Products Corporation (30.5 per cent) and two individuals, Pham Minh Thuan (35.08 per cent) and Le Thi Thu Huyen (5.15 per cent).

Despite its modest size, Fahasa’s share price is valued higher than share prices of many banks on the stock market such as Sai Gon-Ha Noi Bank, Nam Viet Bank, Kien Long Bank, LienVietPostBank, Sacombank and Eximbank, which have charter capital of several to dozen of trillions dong, but their share prices are trading at between VND7,000-13,000 per share. — VNS