In the same week toward the end of August 2026, investors watching shares of Hoang Anh Gia Lai International Investment JSC (HGI) could read two different prices for the same asset.
The first price sits in the public offering prospectus: HGI is offering 18.8 million shares at VND 60,600 apiece, aiming to raise nearly VND 1,140 billion, with subscriptions running from August 18 through September 7, 2026.Mekong Asean The second sits in the parent company's reviewed semi-annual financial statement: Hoang Anh Gia Lai JSC (HAG) had completed the transfer of nearly 14.7 million HGI shares to other parties for a total of over VND 670 billion, equivalent to roughly VND 45,652 per share.Tin nhanh Chứng khoán After the transaction, HAGL's stake in HGI fell from 93.13% to 84.43%.
The gap between the two figures is roughly 25%, or nearly VND 15,000 per share.CafeF
The VND 264 billion gain didn't disappear, it just landed on a different line
What stops most investors first isn't the price itself, but the gap between the transfer price and the book value of the investment. Per the report, the roughly VND 264 billion difference was added to HAGL's retained earnings rather than run through the income statement.Mekong Asean
The first instinct for many readers is to suspect the accounting. But the treatment matches the substance of the deal: HAGL sold down part of its stake in HGI but still holds 84.43%, meaning it still controls HGI and still consolidates the subsidiary's full results into its own statements. When a parent trades part of a subsidiary's equity without losing control, consolidation standards treat that as a transaction with owners, not a sale of an outside asset. So the difference gets booked straight into equity instead of profit.
In other words, the VND 264 billion still belongs to HAGL's shareholders. It simply isn't added to the profit figure the press quotes. HAGL's reviewed after-tax profit for the first half of this year came in at VND 2,410 billion.Tuổi Trẻ Had the VND 264 billion been booked through the income statement instead, the reported figure would be roughly 11% higher. The current treatment keeps consolidated profit from being inflated by an intra-group transaction. So the number worth paying attention to isn't the VND 264 billion: it's the VND 45,652 price standing behind it.
Where the 25% gap comes from
Three explanations coexist, and none of them is ruled out entirely by the data.
The first is the time gap. The transfer deal closed in the first half of 2026, while the VND 60,600 offering price was only set in early August. In between, HGI booked VND 2,185 billion in revenue and VND 782 billion in after-tax profit for the first six months of the year, completing 43% of its annual plan, while equity stood at VND 5,180 billion as of June 30, 2026.Mekong Asean Book value rose in the interim, so part of the price gap is legitimate.
The second is the block discount typical of unlisted shares. The buyer took on nearly 14.7 million shares in a negotiated deal at a time when the stock had no trading venue and no reference price. Whoever takes a large block with no easy exit usually demands a lower price than a retail buyer subscribing to a small lot through a public offering. This is an ordinary discount in unlisted equity markets, not special treatment.
The third is everything that only appeared after the transfer. The public offering comes bundled with a roadmap to register for trading on UPCoM in Q3 or Q4 2026, a target to move up to HOSE in early 2027, and a commitment to pay 50% cash dividends for three consecutive years that Doan Nguyen Duc made at the August 18 investment introduction event.CafeF The buyer from earlier in the year had none of these commitments in hand when signing.
Together, the three factors account for most of the 25% gap. What they don't erase is a simple fact: VND 45,652 is the closest figure anyone has actually paid for an HGI share so far. Nobody has yet paid VND 60,600. That's still just the asking price.
What's holding up the VND 60,600 price
At the August 18 event, Doan Nguyen Duc, Chairman of Hoang Anh Gia Lai JSC (HAG) and also Chairman of HGI, acknowledged that a price above VND 60,000 might surprise investors. He said the figure came out of a valuation process run by advisory firms, with the board not directly involved, and urged investors to look at earning potential rather than the market price.Mekong Asean
The numbers put forward to support the price include: book value per share of VND 25,372 as of December 31, 2025, ROE of 44%, and a P/E of roughly 6x against an industry average of 11x.CafeF In 2025, HGI posted VND 4,885 billion in revenue and VND 1,486 billion in after-tax profit, up 20.8% and 75% respectively year-over-year. The 2026 plan targets nearly VND 7,500 billion in revenue and over VND 1,800 billion in profit; the 2027 plan raises that to roughly VND 9,500 billion in revenue and nearly VND 3,000 billion in profit.
Behind those plan figures sits nearly 8,000 hectares of farmland in Laos growing bananas, durian, coffee, macadamia, and mulberry. Most of the long-term expectation rests on Arabica coffee, which Duc says reaches commercial harvest after two years of planting.
One figure worth placing side by side is the scale of the implied valuation. At the offering price and the projected charter capital of VND 1,873 billion after the issuance, HGI is valued at over VND 11,000 billion.CafeBiz Meanwhile, parent company HAG itself carries a market cap of roughly VND 18,000 billion, trading at VND 14,200 per share as of the August 28 session. In other words, HGI's implied valuation at the offering price equals more than 60% of the market cap of its own listed parent group on HOSE.
How investors should read these numbers
The offering closes at 5pm on September 7, 2026. Investors can subscribe for a minimum of 100 shares and a maximum of 9.36 million shares, and must post a 10% deposit on the subscribed value.
For an unlisted stock with no market price to check against, the most recent price someone actually paid is the most valuable reference point investors have. The 25% gap between VND 45,652 and VND 60,600 is essentially what's being paid for the listing roadmap, the dividend commitment, and six months of additional profit already accrued. All three have some basis, but two of the three only become reality after the offering closes, not before.
The optimistic case is that VND 60,600 correctly prices HGI's profit growth and the untapped potential of its Laos farmland, much of which has only just started commercial harvest. The cautious case is that the 25% premium is pricing in things that haven't happened yet: no UPCoM listing yet, no dividend paid yet under the new commitment. Which case turns out to be closer to the truth depends on two milestones worth watching after September 7.
The first is the subscription result: whether the offering sells out all 18.8 million shares, and what share of that goes to individual investors. The second is the day HGI actually lists on UPCoM along with its first reference price, since that will be the first time the open market states its own number for this stock, rather than a figure set by the company or an internal buyer.
This article is for informational purposes only and is not investment advice.