Illustrative image (Source: vietnambiz.vn)Hanoi (VNA) - PV Oil’s locking of the foreign ownership ratio at 6.6 percentis a temporary measure before the Government endorses its new capitaldivestment plan, said General Director Cao Hoai Duong.
PVOil is waiting for the State to approve its new divestment plan, Duong said,adding that the foreign ownership limit would be scaled up to 49 percent againafter the approval.
Hesaid in the new plan, the company proposed to keep the foreign ratio at 49 percent,the maximum rate allowed in the petroleum sector in Vietnam.
TheState still holds 80 percent of PV Oil’s capital after the sale of 20 percentstake in the initial public offering in January 2018. The planned offering of45 percent capital for strategic investors was not carried out due to the shorttime (three months) between the two share sales regulated by the Government.
Inthe new divestment scheme, PV Oil – a subordinate company of the Vietnam Oiland Gas Group (PetroVietnam) - still proposes to sell a 45 percent stake toreduce the State’s holding to 35 percent.
Thedivestment is expected to be divided in two lots – a 30 percent stake and a 15 percentstake. At present, a number of foreign investors have shown interest in buying thecompany’s capital, including SK Energy (the Republic of Korea), Idemitsu(Japan) and British-Dutch oil giant Shell.
InNovember last year, SK Energy purchased 3.55 million PV Oil shares and becamethe company’s second largest shareholder with a holding of 5.23 percent ofcapital.
InDecember, Vietnam’s second largest petroleum distributor unexpectedly adjustedits cap on foreign ownership from 49 percent to 6.62 percent withoutexplanation.
Sharesof the company (OIL) are trading on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM)at around 14,000 VND (0.60 USD) per share.
Itsconsolidated profit before tax in 2018 is expected to reach 587 billion VND (25.2million USD), up 17 percent year-on-year.-VNA
VNA
