Vietnam to Unload Vinamilk Shares This Year

The Vietnamese government will start to divest its stake in Vinamilk in the final months of this year.


      The Vietnamese government will start to sell shares in Vinamilk this year. Photo: Internet

The Vietnamese government will initiate its plan to sell shares in Vietnam Dairy Products JSC (Vinamilk), the country’s biggest milk producer, by the end of this year, Dang Quyet Tien, deputy head of the Corporate Finance Department under the Ministry of Finance, told press Wednesday.

State-owned State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC), which holds a 45% stake in Vinamilk, is outlining a divestment plan and will submit it to the government for consideration, he added.

As the state holding in the firm is now valued at around 100 trillion dong ($4.5 billion), the divestment should be carried out in many trenches, Tien noted.

Since late 2015, the government has asked SCIC to draw up a roadmap to unload state holdings in ten flagship companies which include Vinamilk (VNM), exchange-listed software producer FPT Corp, insurer Bao Minh (BMI), reinsurer Vinare (VNR), plastics producer Tien Phong (NTP) and Binh Minh (BMP), and Internet service provider FPT Telecom.  

However, SCIC has not announced any moves since then, despite foreign investors’ eagerness to buy.

Tien tipped that the divestment in the remaining nine companies will start at the beginning of 2017.

Singapore-based Fraser & Neave Ltd (F&N) last year offered to acquire the state holding in Vinamilk for $4 billion, 43% higher than the closing price on November 2, after the government announced a plan to exit the dairy producer. However, shortly after the media report, F&N denied the information.

An executive of F&N, which already owns an 11% stake in Vinamilk, told Bloomberg last month that the Singaporean beverage firm was looking to buy more shares of Vinamilk, as part of its plan to bolster its market share in Southeast Asia.

The dairy firm last month received permission from the stock market watchdog to scrap the foreign ownership limit, fanning hopes among international players, including fund manager VinacCapital, who are desperately waiting to buy its shares.

Tuan Minh / BizLIVE