Vietnamese agricultural giant Hoang Anh Gia Lai JSC (HAGL), whose HAG shares are traded on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, plans to raise VND1.3 trillion (US$53.6 million) through the private sale of 130 million HAG shares to make debt payments.

The HAGL management board passed a non-public offering plan, with each share offered at VND10,000 ($0.41).

The company, whose board chairman is Doan Nguyen Duc, will offer these shares to less than 100 professional stock investors as per the prevailing regulations, after its share sale plan is approved by the State Securities Commission of Vietnam.

HAGL will tap VND323 billion ($13.3 million) from the proceeds of the share sale to pay the principal and interest on the bonds issued on June 18, 2012 and VND277 billion ($11.4 million) for restructuring its subsidiary Lo Pang Cattle JSC’s debts at TPBank.

VND700 billion ($28.9 million) from the share sale will be added to HAGL’s working capital and help Hung Thang Loi Gia Lai Company, another HAGL subsidiary, restructure its debts.

The given amount of money is expected to be disbursed in the 2023-24 period.

At a recent shareholder meeting, Duc received many inquiries about HAGL’s VND7.6 trillion ($313.7 million) debt.

In response, he said this given amount of debt remains much lower than the company’s current assets worth VND21.34 trillion ($880.6 million).

In the near future, HAGL will adopt multiple debt-paying measures, including selling non-income producing assets and issuing more shares.

Duc revealed that one institution, whose name was not mentioned, is in talks with HAGL to buy back VND580 billion ($23.9 million) worth of bank debts.

HAGL is trying to pay off the principal in the next three years, Duc said.

During the first half of 2023, HAGL booked over VND3.14 trillion ($129.6 million) in revenue, up 55 percent over the same period last year, and earned nearly VND405 billion ($16.7 million) in after-tax profits.

In the local stock market, HAG sold for VND7,800 per share on Wednesday afternoon, down some 15 percent compared to one month ago amid a market downtrend.

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