Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Bac Son has urged the MobiFone Telecommunications Corporation to seek capable strategic investors in its ongoing equitisation process.

Son told a ministerial meeting last week, that the equitisation of the company is an important issue which must be implemented with transparency to foster the country's general policy in restructuring State-owned enterprises.

Many international telecommunications firms from Australia, France, Malaysia and Singapore have expressed interest in a strategic partnership with the company in the past months, he said, without giving further details.

MobiFone has selected brokerage firm Ban Viet Securities as a consultant for its equitisation, while a draft plan has been made available and prepared to be presented to the ministry for assessment.

Son asked MobiFone to submit reports about the progress of the plan weekly to the Corporate Management Department, and monthly to ministry officials, for effective implementation.

MobiFone Chairman Le Nam Tra said that in the first 10 months of this year the company's profit has nearly reached the annual target while its turnover has grown by 7.8 per cent year-on-year.

Last month, he said the firm planned to report VND36.4 trillion (US$1.63 billion) in total revenue and VND7.3 trillion ($328.2 million) in profit in 2015.

In the first nine months, the company's total revenue reached VND27.2 trillion ($1.2 billion), bringing in a profit of VND5.67 trillion ($252.7 million).

By September, the company accounted for a market share of 26.11 per cent or a year-on year growth of 1.6 per cent. The number of new subscribers reached 11 million with a year-on-year increase of 94.7 per cent.

According to the ministry, MobiFone currently has a charter capital of VND15.3 trillion, or $680 million.

MobiFone's operator was rechristened the MobiFone Telecommunications Corporation from the Viet Nam Mobile Telecom Services Company last December, after the firm was separated from the Viet Nam Post and Telecommunications Group and was placed under the supervision of the Ministry of Information and Communications last year. VNS