Vinalines announces mid-year IPO

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Nguyen Canh Tinh, acting general director of Vinalines said that the company will start to operate under the equitized enterprise format from the middle of the year, following the directions of the government. Vinalines will have charter capital of VND13.91 trillion ($612.5 million).

After the equitisation, Vinalines will change its management method, as well as its mode of administration, and organisation management. Additionally, the company will expand access to capital markets and improve its capacity and business efficiency.

Furthermore, Vinalines is moving towards participating in international markets by co-operating with shipping lines and mine owners worldwide to reach its ambitious growth targets set for 2018. 

Accordingly, the company plans to set up several international alliances, focusing on two key business segments, shipping and logistics.

In shipping, Vinalines will restructure its fleet, focusing on long-term contracts and key large-volume commodities, such as coal, ores, steel, cement, and clinker, while creating more two-way shipping services.

Vinalines will develop inland domestic transportation networks, while co-operating with international main line operators to provide cargo consolidating and feedering services for them, as well as developing intra-Asian container routes and two-way shipping routes.

In addition, after the IPO, the Ministry of Transport (MoT) will look for strategic investors for Vinalines. Accordingly, MoT has already issued the criteria for strategic investors. Notably, applicants operating in the shipping sectors or marine services must have operated in profit without accummulated losses in the last two years. Enterprises operating outside these sectors have to face the additional of criteria of having an equity of at least VND1 trillion ($44.03 million).

In 2017, Vinalines earned VND14.85 trillion ($653.9 million) in accommodated revenue and VND48 billion ($2.1 million) in profit. Regarding Vinalines (the mother company) alone, it earned VND3.18 trillion ($140.04 million) in revenue and VND483 billion ($21.2 million) in profit.

The firm sold six ships with the total capacity of 125,000 DWT, reducing its fleet to 92 units with a total capacity of 1.8 million DWT.

This year Vinalines aims for growth in profit, revenue, and volume of goods no lower than the country’s or similar regional industries’ GDP growth.

With better business performance and bright potential, Vinalines has become more attractive to domestic and foreign investors ahead of its initial public offering, which is scheduled to take place in the second quarter of 2018.

Many investors from Japan, the US, Singapore, and South Korea have expressed strong interest in becoming strategic investors of Vinalines.