Hanoi (VNA) – The Vietnam National ShippingLines (Vinalines) has fixed the date for its initial public offering (IPO) on September5.
The corporation will hold the IPO at the Hanoi Stock Exchange(HNX), offering more than 488.8 million shares, or 34.8 percent of its chartercapital, at the starting price of 10,000 VND per share, according to the firm’srepresentative.
Vinalines is a State-owned enterprise under the managementof the Ministry of Transport, engaging in shipping, port management andmaritime and logistics services in Vietnam and internationally.
In June, Vinalines announced it will put up 20 percent ofits charter capital, equivalent to 280.9 million shares, for the IPO slated inAugust while another 14.8 percent or nearly 207.9 million shares will be soldto strategic investors.
However, the Ministry of Transport could not find eligiblestrategic investors so it has decided to offer an extra 14.8 percent at theIPO.
After the IPO, the State will still own 65 percent ofVinalines’ charter capital, equivalent to approximately 913 million shares.Some 0.2 percent or 2.8 million shares will be sold at preferential prices tothe corporation’s employees and trade union.
Interested investors can make an application and depositto place an IPO bid from 8:00am on August 8 to 3:30pm on August 28.
As of the first quarter of 2018, Vinalines owned a fleetof 92 ships and operated 67 wharves or 27 percent of total wharves nationwide.
It has a 100 percent stake in four companies andcontrolling stakes (50-70 percent) in 34 subsidiaries, and makes capitalcontributions to a dozen others.
The corporation reported total revenues of nearly 16trillion VND in 2017 (668 million USD), up 15 percent over its target set forthe whole year, of which maritime service was the biggest contributor with 7.1trillion VND in revenue. Port operation and shipping services each accountedfor more than 4.4 trillion VND.
Consolidated profit was estimated at 515 billion VND (over 22 million USD), thehighest in the last five years of the firm’s restructuring. –VNA