Products being made at the Casumina Dong Nai Factory of the Mien Nam Industrial Rubber Joint Stock Company. (Source: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) -In a new move, the Government has announced the rate of State-ownership infirms that are set to be equitised, instead of fixing the rates by sectors asusual.
It has also issued alist of 103 State-owned enterprises (SOEs) in which the State will hold a 100percent stake and another 137 that will be equitised in the 2016-20 period.
Among those that are tobe equitised, the State will hold over 65 percent of the charter capital infour, and 50-65 percent in 27, and below 50 percent in 106 SOEs.
The State will retainfull ownership in SOEs operating in sectors like national defence and security,nuclear power and money printing.
The new lists and otherprovisions are contained in Decision No 58 issued on the very last day of 2016to replace the Decision No 37/2014/QĐ-TTg dated June 18, 2014, and will takeeffect on February 15 this year.
Dang Quyet Tien, deputydirector of the Ministry of Finance’s Corporate Finance Department, welcomedthe decision saying that it proves the Government’s determination to improvetransparency and effectiveness of equitisation process.
Tien said publicisingnames of the equitised companies with specific rates of State ownership wouldhelp avoid enterprises’ petitions for maintaining a higher rate of Stateownership as had previously happened.
Previously, theGovernment had only regulated the extent of State ownership rates by sector,not specific SOEs, leading to low divestment, Tien said.
He said that the averagedivestment rate at SOEs is now 8 per cent, meaning that the State still holds92 per cent of the firms’ charter capital after equitisation.
SOEs are not willing toequitise because of leaders’ fears that they will be unemployed if controllingstakes fall in private hands, according to Tien.
Besides, due to poorpreparations for equitisation, private investors are not provided with enoughinformation, and many stakes languish “on the shelves”.
To ensure that theequitisation process benefits both the State and private investors, theGovernment would require better information disclosure by the SOEs and mightlift the cap on the number of strategic shareholders so as to increase thenumber of bidders, Tien said.
Tien also said that theGovernment would not rush to sell its stake at one time. Instead, thedivestment would be divided into many phases, depending on the marketsituation.
“I think the Vietnamesemarket is still small, so if we don’t have policies to attract foreign capital,it is difficult for us to reach the SOE equitisation targets,” he said.
The Steering Committeefor Enterprise Renovation and Development reported on December 28 that theGovernment had sold stakes in 55 enterprises in 2016, bringing the number ofSOEs equitised in the 2011-16 period to 554.
The 55 equitisedenterprises were under the management of the ministries of National Defence,Industry and Trade, and Agriculture and Rural Development; the Vietnam Rubber Group;and the Vietnam Southern Food Corporation.
As of now, the State hassold shares worth more than 4.493 trillion VND (199.69 million USD) in bookvalue for more than 7.098 trillion VND (315.46 million USD).-VNA
