Around $251 million will be used for the construction of the Vietnam Exhibition Fair Centre. (Source: Vingroup)
In a new statement, the Vietnam Exhibition Fair Center JSC (VEFAC), a subsidiary of Vietnam’s largest conglomerate Vingroup, said it would issue 1.2 billion new shares to existing shareholders to raise its charter capital by 7-fold from VND1.67 trillion ($72 million) to VND13.89 trillion ($600 million) to fund new projects
VEFAC was equitised in 2015. Major shareholders of the firm are Vingroup (83.3 percent) and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (10 percent).
Of the money raised, VND5.78 trillion ($249 million) will be used for the construction of the Vietnam Exhibition Fair Center in Dong Anh district, about 15 km North of Hanoi's downtown. Construction of the project got green light from the government in 2018.
Meanwhile, the existing national exhibition center on Giang Vo Street in the downtown area would be turned into a mall and housing project at an investment of VND4.1 trillion ($177 million), according to VEFAC.
The remaining proceeds will finance an urban project in Me Tri ward of Nam Tu Liem district and boost the firm’s working capital.
VEFAC expects to complete all legal procedures this year to carry out construction of the three projects. With its business core of organising traditional exhibition fairs, the firm projects its revenue to reach VND17,4 trillion ($756,520) and profit at VND59 billion ($2.56 million) in this year.
Last year, VEFAC earned revenues of VND70 billion ($3 million) and an after-tax profit of VND33 billion ($1.42 million). It targets revenue of VND76.7 billion (US$3.31 million) in 2019.
As of December 31, 2018, VEFAC had assets worth VND1.82 trillion (US$78.66 million), including VND1.06 trillion (US$45.81 million) in short-term assets and VND810 billion (US$35 million) in long-term assets.
Its parent company Vingroup is the Vietnam’s largest listed company by market capitalization. Vingroup has been expanding rapidly from real estate into retail, logistics, education, healthcare, agriculture, electronics and automobile sectors.
