Mobile World set to give 7.3m shares to employees

Employees of Mobile World Investment Corporation may hold a fortune worth VNĐ2.6 trillion (US$116.7 million) this month, according to a report on the news website CafeF.- Photo techz.vn

The electronic device retailer, known as Mobile World, has asked the State Securities Commission to allow it to issue 7.3 million bonus shares for employees this year.

If the proposal is approved, the value of the bonus shares will be VNĐ1.5 trillion, making total value of bonus shares that Mobile World has issued to employees since December 2014 VNĐ2.62 trillion. The company’s stock closed at VNĐ155,000 per share yesterday.

During the previous two years, the company has issued 12.3 million bonus shares to employees, including 5.3 million in 2014 and seven million in 2015.

The bonus shares are known as employee stock ownership programme shares and employees don’t have to pay for the shares.

According to CafeF, the share issuance would make Mobile World the “most generous company to employees in the stock market” compared to other large-cap firms such as dairy producer Vinamilk, private equity firm Masan Group and construction company Coteccons.

What makes Mobile World’s bonus shares so valuable are the terms that receivers must follow and the growth of the company share prices.

According to the company’s regulations, the bonus shares can’t be traded for a year after being issued. After one year, employees can sell half of the shares, with all of the bonus shares tradable after two years.

The restriction has made Mobile World’s bonus shares a hot commodity. By December 2016, half of the bonus shares issued in 2014 and all of those issued last year remained unavailable for trading.

The company’s share prices have jumped since Mobile World began trading on the HCM Stock Exchange in July 2014 as the company has recorded significant gains in post-tax profits.

Before being listed on the stock market, Mobile World recorded its best post-tax profit of VNĐ258 billion in 2013.

The company earned VNĐ674 billion in total post-tax profit for 2014. The figure increased by nearly 1.6 times one year later and hit VNĐ1.33 trillion in the first 10 months of this year.

Significant increases in the company’s earnings have helped its share price jump four times to VNĐ155,000 yesterday since it was listed on the HCM Stock Exchange in July 2014, making it one of the 30 biggest listed firms by market capitalisation.