Mai Linh taxi group plans share issue

Taxi operator Mai Linh Group is seeking to sell more than 60 million shares to strategic investors to raise capital, the group's chairman Ho Huy told investors in the annual shareholders' meeting on May 21.
Taxi operator Mai Linh Group is seeking to sell more than 60 millionshares to strategic investors to raise capital, the group's chairman HoHuy told investors in the annual shareholders' meeting on May 21.

Theshares, expected to sell for 10,000 each VND, will raise the company'scharter capital from 1.017 trillion VND (48.2 million USD) to 1.618trillion VND (76.7 million USD).

Huy said the company isnegotiating with several prospective investors, including banks andorganisations keen on the transportation sector. He refused to disclosespecific information as the negotiations are ongoing.

Mai LinhGroup, once one of Vietnam's major taxi operators, was on the brink ofbankruptcy last year with total debts reaching trillions of Vietnamesedong.

The group suffered constant losses during 2007-12, exceptin 2010 when it posted a modest profit of 68 billion VND (3.2 millionUSD).

According to market insiders, the problems of Mai LinhGroup can be attributed to its poor governance as well as irrationalinvestment diversification, especially its involvements in real estate.

Thegroup has undertaken a severe restructuring process to reduce debts,including selling cars, real estate projects and rest stops. However,its total debt remained nearly 4.7 trillion VND (222.7 million USD) bythe end of 2013, of which short-term debt accounted for 2.075 trillionVND (98.3 million USD).

Huy said losses in rest stop services andlong-distance transport (Mai Linh Express) made up the biggestproportion, with loss of rest stop services over 1 trillion VND (47.4million USD) and loss of the latter over 200 billion VND (9.5 millionUSD).

However, the group returned to being profitable last year,with the after-tax profit of the whole group reaching 10.6 billion VND(502,400 USD), of which the parent company Mai Linh Group accounted fornearly 5 billion VND (237,000 USD).

Due to heavy debts, thegroup decided not to pay dividends. This is the seventh consecutive yearMai Linh Group has not made a dividend payout.

This year, the whole group set modest business targets, including 2.8 trillion VND (132.7 million USD) in total revenue.-VNA

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