Tan Hiep Phat deputy CEO looks to sell four million Yeah1 shares

Phuong has registered to sell 4 million Yeah1 Group (YEG) shares of a total of more than 6.7 million shares she owns for "personal financial arrangements." If she manages to divest, Phuong's ownership in Yeah1 will decrease from 21.6 percent to 8.8 percent.

It is expected that the trading will take place between May 24 and June 23.

The current market price of YEG shares is only around the half of her purchase price at VND22,000 ($0.95).

In early 2020, Phuong became a major strategic investor in the multimedia company after buying more than six million shares from Yeah1 chairman Nguyen Anh Nhuong Tong and general director Dao Phuc Tri.

Yeah1 and Tan Hiep Phat then signed a strategic cooperation agreement in mid-March 2020 to put the former back on track and repay its debt to unicorn investors. However, despite the backing of one of the largest beverage makers in the market, Yeah1 has remained mired in trouble.

In March, its contract with YouTube was terminated over alleged policy violations.

Yeah1 reported a loss of more than VND52.5 billion (around $2.27 million) in the first quarter of this year, compared with a profit of VND5.5 billion in the same period last year. The company explained the losses to the fact it is in the process of expanding the existing media ecosystem to a commercial one that needs huge initial investments upfront, and a sharp increases in costs.

At the end of Q1, Yeah1's total accumulated loss was VND265 billion ($11.46 million), nearly 85 percent of its charter capital.