Investment funds convert Masan bonds

Investment funds convert Masan bonds

Food giant Masan Group (MSN) yesterday converted into common shares VND630 billion (US$30 million) worth of bonds it issued in 2009 to investment funds under the management of US-based private equity firm Texas Pacific Group (TPG) and Danish asset manager BankInvest.

The bonds were converted into over 30.9 million shares, with a total market value of VND3.1 trillion ($147.6 million). While the conversion price was VND20,374 per share – just a fifth of MSN's closing price on the market of VND100,000 ($4.75) per share – the equity firms were making substantial gains on their initial investments.

TPG earlier made a large return on a 10-per-cent stake in software giant FPT before the company debuted on the HCM City Stock Exchange in late 2006. TPG sold these shares after the minimum six-month statutory holding period only to turn them over for a four-fold return.

In this conversion, TPG converted bonds from three different tranches worth a combined VND450 billion ($21.4 million) into 21 million shares, while BankInvest converted a VND180 billion ($8.6 million) bond into over 8.8 million shares.

Last week, BankInvest sold 20.6 million MSN shares to three individual investors but after acquiring this additional 8.8 million shares, the firm still holds nearly 41.7 million MSN shares, or over 7.6 per cent of Masan's charter capital.

After the conversion, the total outstanding shares of Masan Group being traded on the stock market increases from 515.3 million shares to 546.2 million shares.

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