Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange cancels trading of FLC shares, freezes chairman’s accounts

The decision was made as directed by the State Securities Commission of Vietnam (SSC), the HoSE announced Tuesday evening.

The cancelation was made as Trinh Van Quyet, FLC chairman, had failed to report his sale of the stocks.

The SSC said earlier Tuesday that the filing for the sale was only done at 5:45 p.m. Monday, three hours after trading ended at the HoSE, where FLC is listed.

By then Quyet had already sold the shares.

The law requires major shareholders to announce planned stock sales in advance.

The HoSE website briefly carried an announcement saying Quyet wanted to sell 175 million FLC shares and reduce his ownership in the company from 30.34 percent to 5.7 percent. The announcement was released on Jan. 5, but SSC said that it only received the expected transaction report at the end of the afternoon on Jan. 10.

Between Jan. 5 and 10, there had been no information about the trading on either website of FLC or the HoSE.

On Monday, FLC closed at the floor price of VND21,150 ($0.93) with 134.96 million shares being traded, the highest volume since its listing on HoSE in 2013.

During the session the price also went up to the ceiling of VND24,100, a new high.

At that price, Quyet’s sale of 74.8 million shares would have fetched VND1.8 trillion ($79.28 million).

FLC has doubled since September 2021 and gained 363 percent since January that year. In five straight sessions until Monday when Quyet sold out, it went up from VND18,000 to VND23,600.

On Facebook stock trading groups, investors have been calling Quyet a “fraudster” for the surreptitious sell-off.

Other stocks related to FLC such as ROS of FLC Faros and HAI of HAI Agrochem Jsc were all in free fall on Tuesday.