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Bourbon unit to make share debut on Feb 25
Sugar refiner Sucrerie de Bourbon Tay Ninh, 68.4 percent owned by France’s Group Bourbon, plans to list nearly one third of its shares next week, the company said.
Bourbon Tay Ninh would list 44,824,172 shares or 31.58 percent of the company’s total shares on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange on February 25, said the statement posted on Monday on its website.
It has sold a combined 37,462,192 shares, or 26.4 percent of the company, to Vietnamese strategic investors while employees and sugarcane suppliers held the remaining 7,361,980 shares, Bourbon Tay Ninh’s prospectus said.
Initial public offerings and share listings are separate events in Vietnam.
The shares to be listed are part of the 69.52 million shares which the company has been licensed to sell to the public.
The company said of the strategic investors, top dairy product maker Vinamilk and Kinh Do Corp. confectionary and juice maker each own 5 percent of the sugar refinery.
Bourbon Tay Ninh, based in the southern province of Tay Ninh, set the starting price for its shares on the debut date at VND30,000 (US$1.87) each, valuing the firm at around $265 million.
The company, established in 1995, has a registered capital of VND1.42 trillion ($88.98 million).
Group Bourbon and two executives, who are founding shareholders now own a combined 68.42 percent of the company, and are committed to keep 51 percent for three years ending March 22, 2010, siad the prospectus.
The prospectus said the company’s unaudited net profit eased 0.63 percent to VND191.32 billion ($12 million) last year from VND192.53 billion ($12.06 million) in 2006, as revenues dropped 0.8 percent to VND674.27 billion ($42.2 million).
It gave no reason for the decline.
Vietnam, a small sugar producer, estimated its output to rise 14.5 percent to 1.42 million tons in the crushing season that lasts from October 2007 to this April, industry reports said.
Domestic consumption is estimated at 1.45 million tons in the current season.
If importers use up all the Industry and Trade Ministry’s sugar import quota of 58,000 tons, it may result in a small stockpile emerging at the end of 2008.
Thanhnien
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