F&N Dairy Investment Pte., Ltd has just registered to buy 14,512,467 VNM shares on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HSX) between July 11 and August 9, 2018.

If the transaction is successful, the investor will raise ownership from 254,246,968 shares (17.31 per cent) to 265,759,453 shares (18.31 per cent) in Vinamilk.

This is the 16th time F&N Dairy Investments has professed to its ambition to raise ownership in Vinamilk. Earlier, the fund also registered but failed to buy the same amount of shares between June 6 and July 5, 2018.

At the latest successful transaction, F&N registered to buy 14,512,636 shares from May 2 to 31, 2018, however, only 130,000 shares were matched.

According to HSX, since 2017, F&N Dairy Investment has registered to buy VNM stocks 15 times via auction, failing at each turn.

On July 5, VNM was lightly reduced to VND165,000 ($7.3). If this registration is successful, F&N expects to spend nearly VND2.4 trillion ($105.5 million) on 1 per cent of Vinamilk’s charter capital.

F&N Dairy Investments is a subsidiary of Fraser & Neave Limited (F&N), a food and beverage, publishing, and former brewing and property conglomerate in Singapore held by Thai billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi. Lee Meng Tat is general director of F&N as well as member of Vinamilk’s Board of Management.

Recently, another Singaporean foreign fund, Platinum Victory Pte., Ltd. also registered to buy more than 14.5 million VNM shares between June 13 and July 12, 2018 via auction or negotiated transaction. If this transaction is successful, the fund will raise its ownership from 154 million shares (10.61 per cent) to over 168 million shares (11.61 per cent).

VIR