Grinling International Limited sold 500,000 FPT shares, Venner Group Limited 500,000 and Vietnam Enterprise Investments Limited 250,000.

After selling 1.25 million FPT shares within several days, since May 12, the member funds managed by Dragon Capital are no longer big shareholders of FPT. They still hold 4.9 percent of FPT shares.

As they are no longer big shareholders, they can continue to sell FPT shares without having to make registrations.

FPT shares saw prices decrease sharply in the last month after going against the downward trend in the market.

From March to mid-April, FPT share prices jumped from VND90,000 per share to the historic peak of VND117,000 per share. But the shares have decreased in price in the last couple of weeks, especially since May 11.

Prior to that, HPG shares of Hoa Phat Group, owned by billionaire Tran Dinh Long, also saw prices falling sharply following the sales of foreign investors. HPG has seen foreign investor net sales in 2019.

HPG share prices dropped sharply in 2019 and early 2020 after foreign shareholders sold a large amount of shares. Since mid-March 2019, the funds managed by Dragon Capital are no longer major shareholders of Hoa Phat.

At that time, experts said 2019 was a challenging year for the global steel industry with weak demand for steel use and higher iron ore prices.

However, since mid-2020, HPG share prices increased by three times just within one year and reached a peak in early October 2021. Foreign shareholders later bought HPG shares in big amounts.

Recently, amid the fall in the VN Index, the funds managed by Dragon Capital sold 45 million HPG shares in the first four months of 2022. With the move, their ownership ratio decreased to below 5 percent and they are no longer big shareholders of Hoa Phat.

In the first four months of the year, HPG prices fluctuated between VND40,000 and VND50,000 per share and Dragon Capital group collected VND1.8-2.3 trillion. The current price of HPG shares is VND36,000 per share.

Both FPT and Hoa Phat are the leading enterprises in their fields. Other leading enterprises also attract foreign investors. 

Hoa Phat is now No 1 in structural steel and steel pipes with 32.6 percent and 24.7 percent of market share, respectively. Hoa Phat is among the top 5 corrugated iron manufacturers with 8 percent of market share. It is also the only Vietnamese enterprise which can make HRC (hot rolled coil).

V. Ha