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Sabeco to apply for Vietnam listing approval in Q4
Saigon Beer-AlcoholBeverages Corp., the brewer known as Sabeco, will submit a listing application to Vietnam’s main bourse in the fourth quarter this year, according to Tran Duc Hoa, a Sabeco director.
“We have committed to our shareholders that we will complete our listing application to the State Securities Commission and the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange in the fourth quarter this year,” Hoa said by phone Friday.
Sabeco, which sold its shares in a coolly received offering last year, held off listing amid a bear market that saw the VN-Index slide 66 percent in 2008. The index is up 44 percent since January and the Vietnam Association for Financial Investors has urged large state-owned companies like Sabeco to boost local trade by listing.
The maker of Saigon Beer posted a net income of VND547 billion (US$30.7 million) and sales of VND6.6 trillion for the first half of the year to June 30, Hoa also said.
Sales jump
Ho Chi Minh City-based Sabeco expects full-year sales to rise 45 percent to VND13.5 trillion, from
VND9.3 trillion, Chairman Nguyen Ba Thi told shareholders at a meeting on July 18. This year’s net income will increase by around 8 percent to VND1.3 trillion, from VND1.2 trillion last year, Thi also said.
The company still has a large stockpile of raw materials bought at high prices in 2008 and debts with high interest rates from last year, said Thi, explaining the little changed income versus high sales increase. An unfavorable exchange rate will also lower Sabeco’s profit margin when it needs to buy dollars to pay for imports, he said.
thanhnien, Bloomberg
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