Vincom Retail, the retail arm of the real estate conglomerate Vingroup, will debut on the HCM Stock Exchange on November 6.

Vincom Retail will trade more than 1.9 billion shares on the southern bourse coded VRE at a debut price of VND33,800 (US$1.5) per share. Share prices have a range of movement of 20 per cent on the first day of trading.

At that price, the company’s market capitalisation will reach VND64.25 trillion, equal to $2.8 billion, making it among the top 20 largest companies by market capitalisation in Viet Nam.

The firm has charter capital of VND19 trillion and is the operator of Vingroup’s 41 commercial centres with popular brands like Vincom Center, Vincom Mega Mall and Vincom Plaza.

The operation of commercial centres is among the most profitable segments of Vingroup. According to the corporation’s first-half financial report, the retail segment contributed some VND2.88 trillion in revenue and VND1.45 trillion in pre-tax profit for Vingroup.

Bloomberg reported in August that Vincom Retail held about 60 per cent of total market share in the Vietnamese retail sector.

Vincom Retail has two foreign shareholders – Warburg Pincus and Credit Suisse AG – which own 15.17 per cent and 5.06 per cent of the mall operator, respectively.

In August, Bloomberg reported that Vincom Retail was planning a domestic initial public offering worth some $600 million, which could become Viet Nam’s largest-ever share sale in the private sector.

The last debut offering that topped $100 million was from local budget airline VietJet Aviation JSC at the end of 2016.

Reuters on October 15 reported that Vincom Retail “launched its IPO in a deal worth up to $713 million,” which consisted of  “380.2 million shares in the institutional tranche and another 19 million for the retail tranche, offered in an indicative range of VND37,000-40,600 per share.” — VNS