VNPT submits plan to government to offload 2tr dong from non-core investments

Vietnam Post and Telecommunication Group (VNPT) has said that it is submitting to the government its plan to divest two trillion dong of its investment capital in non-core sectors, especially ineffective fields, according to Phan Hoang Duc, VNPT’s deputy general director.
However, he still insisted that the non-core investment capital divestment of groups is the general policy of the Government, but not offload capital in all sectors. VNPT’s investment in non-core business lines such as finance, banking and real estate is still safe.

“VNPT’s capital contribution in Vietnam Maritime Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Maritime Bank) and Lien Viet Post Joint Stock Commercial Bank (LienVietPost Bank) is safe and it can be maintained. VNPT’s investments in real estate sector were not big so the group has no trouble” Duc said and added VNPT is considering implementing its real estate investment project in the central province of Nghe An (investment of $53 million).

According to statistics, VNPT is contributing capital in 85 joint stock and limited liability companies in areas such as: post – telecommunications, media advertising; banking, finance, real estate, engineering, construction and installation and tourism. The group’s total revenue in 2010 from its capital contribution in enterprise reached 7.3 trillion dong, up 13.5% over 2009. However, this number was still less than one sixth against MobiFone’s revenue (MobiFone’s revenue in 2010 was 36 trillion dong), the company with 100% stake owned by VNPT.

In August 2011, VNPT has made the first move in divesting capital in Maritime Bank via making auction for 25 million shares of this bank. However, VNPT failed because there were no investors and the stock market condition was too bad.

It is reported that, currently, VNPT is the second biggest shareholder of Maritime Bank with total holding of 62,629,999 shares, or 12.53% stake. Recently, VNPT has withdrawn partly its capital contribution from Vietnam Media Joint Stock Co (VMG), from 36% stake to 29% stake, at the same time it also reduce holding in Saigon Post and Telecom Joint Stock Co from 14.4% to 11% stake.

According to Duc, the government allows VNPT to divest capital from non-core investments for one year, but this is also related to the restructuring for group, therefore, VNPT must require five years to complete the capital divestments. – Vietbiz24

Tags: VNPT

Posted by VBN on Nov 18 2011. Filed under Telecommunication. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry