Masan buys back $72M in bonds

By Dat Nguyen December 16, 2022 | 06:03 pm PT

The logo of retail chain WinMart+, which is operated by Masan Group, is seen in a store in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo by VnExpress/Phuong Dong

Masan has bought back VND1.7 trillion ($72.13 million) in its own bonds this month amid a surge in corporate bond buy backs after recent market crackdowns.

The bonds were issued in August 2020 and were supposed to mature in August 2023.

In September, Masan issued VND1.5 trillion worth of bonds with a maturity of five years and a coupon rate of 9.5% a year.

But the retail giant still managed to raise capital in other ways. In November Masan received a syndicated loan of US$600 million at 6.7% interest from international financial institutions.

The value of corporate bond buybacks this year had risen to 14% year-on-year to VND161 trillion ($6.58 billion) as of November 25, according to the Ministry of Finance.

Ministry statistics also indicated that bond issuance in the period, meanwhile, had plunged nearly 32% to VND331.8 trillion.

"Corporations are buying back the bonds they issued before maturity, which shows how difficult the market is," Deputy Finance Minister of Finance Nguyen Duc Chi said earlier this month. "Declining faith has caused major impacts on the corporate bond market."