The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) will submit its plan to offload part of the State’s capital in Sabeco to Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue by October 20 (Photo cafef.vn)
Hanoi (VNA) – The Ministry of
Industry and Trade (MoIT) will submit its plan to offload part of the State’s
capital in the Saigon Beer-Alcohol-Beverage Corporation (Sabeco) to Deputy
Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue by October 20.
According to the Steering Committee for
Business Renovation and Development, the ministry that represents the
Government to administrate the State’s investment in Sabeco will sell 53.59 percent
stake in the brewer’s charter capital.
If completed, the deal will reduce the
State’s ownership in the beer producer to 36 percent from the current 89.6 percent.
The new percentage of ownership will assure the Government’s veto right when
the company makes decisions.
It is not known how MoIT will sell its
ownership in Sabeco, the country’s largest domestic brewer. Market speculators
forecast the ministry could divide its stake in the brewer into various
packages and sell them via auctions.
The value of the for-sale shares is estimated
at 4.2 billion USD. Sabeco has maintained charter capital of 6.4 trillion VND (284.4
million USD) since its equitisation took place in 2008.
In 2008, Sabeco offered 10 percent of its
total shares for sale, of which half were purchased by Dutch brewing company
Heineken.
A number of institutional investors and
companies have expressed interest in buying Sabeco shares following the
Vietnamese Government’s decision to reduce its ownership in the southern
brewer.
These potential companies include Australia-based
Carlton United Breweries – member of Belgian Anheuser-Busch InBev, Thai
Beverage and Heineken.
Shares of Sabeco traded on the Ho Chi Minh
Stock Exchange under code SAB, up 2.2 percent to close October 13 at 272,000
VND (12 USD) per share. At this price, Sabeco’s market capitalisation reached 174.4
trillion VND (7.68 billion USD).
Expectations that the Government would sell
its stake in Sabeco helped the share price jump nearly 110 percent since its
listing on December 6, 2016.
In 2016, Sabeco recorded 30 trillion VND
(1.32 billion USD) in revenue and 4.6 trillion VND in post-tax profit, a yearly
increase of 10 percent and 28 percent, respectively.
In the first half of 2017, the company posted
15.75 trillion (693 million USD) in revenue and 2.56 trillion VND in post-tax
profit.
Sabeco reportedly owns 40 percent of Vietnam’s
beer market. The company has targeted revenue of 34 trillion (1.5 billion USD)
for 2017.-VNA