In a filing to the HCM City bourse on Wednesday, Pan Food announced it purchased almost 3.26 million Bibica shares, equivalent to 21.12 per cent of the company's outstanding shares in the market.

The amount of purchased shares was lower than the number the company registered to buy.

In early April, Pan Food made a public bid for more than 4.6 million shares of Bibica, which would account for a 29.87 per cent stake. At that time, it owned 21.13 per cent of BBC's stakes.

Pan Food said the deal aimed to serve the long-term investment. It offered to buy each share for VND56,800 (US$2.62), costing about VND185 billion ($8.5 million) for the deal.

The price of BBC has climbed 7 per cent since early April, from VND57,500 a share on April 3 to VND61,500 yesterday.

Earlier on Bibica's website, the company announced three of five board members had no objection to the proposed bid of Pan Food, while the other two had no idea.

Lotte is still the largest stakeholder with a 44.03 stake of Bibica's charter capital.

Pan Food is a subsidiary of the Pan Pacific Corporation (coded PAN), which specialises in agriculture and food products. Apart from Pan Food, another subsidiary of Pan Pacific, Ben Tre Aquaproduct Import and Export Co (coded ABT), currently holds a 3.58 per cent stake in Bibica.

Bibica is one of the leading confectionery makers in Viet Nam, with popular brands including Hura, Choco Bella, Orienko, Zoo and, OneTwoThree.

Bibica reported sales of almost VND1.13 trillion ($52.8 million) in 2014, an increase of 7 per cent over the previous year. Its net profit jumped 27 per cent to touch VND57.4 billion ($2.7 million).

Pan Pacific (PAN) reported a consolidated revenue of over 1.12 trillion ($52 million) and a pre-tax profit of VND183 billion ($8.4 million) for the whole year. 

VNS