The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) will submit its plan to offload part of the State’s capital in Sabeco to Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue by October 20 (Photo cafef.vn)Hanoi (VNA) - The Ministry ofIndustry and Trade (MoIT) will submit its plan to offload part of the State’scapital in the Saigon Beer-Alcohol-Beverage Corporation (Sabeco) to DeputyPrime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue by October 20.
According to the Steering Committee forBusiness Renovation and Development, the ministry that represents theGovernment to administrate the State’s investment in Sabeco will sell 53.59 percentstake in the brewer’s charter capital.
If completed, the deal will reduce theState’s ownership in the beer producer to 36 percent from the current 89.6 percent.The new percentage of ownership will assure the Government’s veto right whenthe company makes decisions.
It is not known how MoIT will sell itsownership in Sabeco, the country’s largest domestic brewer. Market speculatorsforecast the ministry could divide its stake in the brewer into variouspackages and sell them via auctions.
The value of the for-sale shares is estimatedat 4.2 billion USD. Sabeco has maintained charter capital of 6.4 trillion VND (284.4million USD) since its equitisation took place in 2008.
In 2008, Sabeco offered 10 percent of itstotal shares for sale, of which half were purchased by Dutch brewing companyHeineken.
A number of institutional investors andcompanies have expressed interest in buying Sabeco shares following theVietnamese Government’s decision to reduce its ownership in the southernbrewer.
These potential companies include Australia-basedCarlton & United Breweries – member of Belgian Anheuser-Busch InBev, ThaiBeverage and Heineken.
Shares of Sabeco traded on the Ho Chi MinhStock Exchange under code SAB, up 2.2 percent to close October 13 at 272,000VND (12 USD) per share. At this price, Sabeco’s market capitalisation reached 174.4trillion VND (7.68 billion USD).
Expectations that the Government would sellits stake in Sabeco helped the share price jump nearly 110 percent since itslisting on December 6, 2016.
In 2016, Sabeco recorded 30 trillion VND(1.32 billion USD) in revenue and 4.6 trillion VND in post-tax profit, a yearlyincrease of 10 percent and 28 percent, respectively.
In the first half of 2017, the company posted15.75 trillion (693 million USD) in revenue and 2.56 trillion VND in post-taxprofit.
Sabeco reportedly owns 40 percent of Vietnam’sbeer market. The company has targeted revenue of 34 trillion (1.5 billion USD)for 2017.-VNA
VNA
