Saigon Port gearing up for share listing
Saigon Port Joint Stock Company is pre|paring the necessary documents to register shares with securities authorities by the end of this year and to begin trading soon after.
This information was announced at the first shareholders’ meeting of the company this week in Ho Chi Minh City.
The operator of Vietnam’s most important port, with a 155-year history, sold more than 35.7 million shares, or 16.51 per cent of the company, in its initial public offering on June 30 on the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange.
VietinBank and VPBank acquired some of these shares, holding 9.07 and 7.44 per cent respectively. After the IPO, state-owned Vietnam National Shipping Lines, better known as Vinalines, held a 65.45-per-cent stake.
After a board election, seven of the nine members of the board of directors, including the chairman, are Vinalines personnel. VietinBank and VP Bank have also placed one representative each on the company’s board and supervisory team.
A legal representative of the company said Vinalines planned to sell more stakes to private investors but declined to disclose the specific time.
On September 21, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung allowed Vinalines to sell more shares to slash state holdings in Saigon Port to as little as 20 per cent in a bid to restructure the state-owned-enterprises sector.
The company has a charter capital of 2.16 trillion dong (Bt 3.5 billion) with a total asset value of 3.95 trillion dong.
Saigon Port operates important ports in southern Vietnam including Nha Rong Khanh Hoi, Tan Thuan I, Tan Thuan II and Phu My Steel Port. The port company accounts for 10.5 per cent of the overall throughput in the country’s south.
It is planning to link with real-estate giant VinGroup to form a company to build a |commercial centre, passenger terminal and apartments on the site of Nha Rong Khanh |Hoi port after the port is relocated next year. The venture company, of which Saigon Port will hold a 26-per-cent stake, will receive a total investment of 11 trillion dong. It expects to start the sale of products in 2018 with a planned dividend of more than 10 per cent per year.
Saigon Port plans total sales of 992.5 billion dong and net profit of 64.2 billion dong for |2015.
