DHG to abolish FOL

June 08, 2018 | 12:29

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Lifting the foreign ownership limit (FOL) to 100 per cent in Hau Giang Pharmaceutical JSC (DHG) will open the doors for old and new investors to increase holdings in Vietnam’s biggest publicly-traded drug maker.

DHG will follow Domesco to become the second no-FOL pharmaceutical in the country

According to information from the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HSX), on June 7 DHG officially submitted the dossiers related to lifting its FOL to the State Securities Commission.

Previously, DHG's extraordinary annual general shareholders’ meeting held in late July 2017 approved the motion to remove the FOL.

On June 6, Taisho Group completed the purchase of 650,000 shares, or 0.5 per cent of the charter capital, to increase its holding in DHG to 24.95 per cent, equaling 32.606 million shares.

After the deal, Taisho is the biggest foreign shareholder, followed by FTIF Templeton Frontier Markets Fund. State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC) is the biggest stakeholder with 43.3 per cent.

DHG will be the second Vietnamese pharmaceutical to remove the FOL, following the third-biggest listed domestic drug maker Domesco (DMC) in 2017.

Foreign pharmaceutical groups see the FOL removal as a positive signal. A clear path in converting partnerships into majority ownership would provide companies with much stronger grounds to convince their global headquarters to invest in Vietnam.

Right after DMC scrapped its FOL, US-based Abbott Laboratories increased its stake in the company to 51.7 per cent, boosting its footprint in the local pharmaceuticals market.

By Kim Oanh

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