|
Heavy hitters expected to equitize by year’s end
Several large state-owned firms have begun moving towards partial-privatization and plan to be fully equitized by the end of the year.
MobiFone Director Le Ngoc Minh said his company was aiming to complete the equitization process this year.
Equitization is the term Vietnam uses to describe the process of issuing shares to partially privatize state-owned businesses in which the government will still hold the major stake.
“The company won’t delay the equitization plan despite the stock market slump,” Minh said. “We are ready. But as we are the country’s first mobile phone network to be equitized, we have to wait for authorities’ careful consideration to give the most advantage to the economy.”
Though some local newspapers said MobiFone’s adviser Credit Suisse Group, Switzerland’s second largest bank, valued the company at around US$2 billion, the company has yet to confirm this information.
Until December 31 last year, MobiFone had 30 million subscribers, the most subscribers of all Vietnam's mobile phone service providers, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications. The company estimated it had record revenue of more than $1 billion and earned nearly VND6 trillion ($343 million) in pre-tax profit last year.
The Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV), the country’s second-biggest lender by assets, is also expected to sell shares this year.
The government said in 2008 that a consultant could begin evaluating the bank, a preparatory step for its IPO, before the end of the year.
The government delayed BIDV’s share sale twice last year as the VN-Index slid 66 percent, its biggest annual loss since the country’s first exchange was set up in 2000.
Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank), the country’s top lender, meanwhile, plans to equitize its subsidiaries first.
Its brokerage arm, Agribank Securities Inc., raised VND316 billion ($18 million) in an IPO on Tuesday.
Hoang Ly – Tuong Chau
Thanh nien
|
