VietNamNet Bridge - Many businesses, including big conglomerates, failed to implement their IPO (initial public offering) plans in 2015, thus leaving investors disappointed. 

 

MobiFone failed to implement their IPO (initial public offering) plans in 2015

Reporting before the National Assembly about the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) restructuring process, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said the government has focused on equitization and disinvestment from non-core business fields, and measures to improve business performance.

The Prime Minister said 465 SOEs have been restructured, of which 353 have been equitized. It is expected that 200/289 SOEs will be equitized in 2015. This means that despite the strong determination, the government still cannot fulfill the plan it set earlier this year.

The market was busy with a series of IPO deals made by big corporations with trillions of dong such as Ca Mau Fertilizer, Vinatex, Vietnam Airlines and Sasco. Meanwhile, it was very quiet in 2015.

Only a few big affairs have been reported, namely Trang Thi Trade & Service and Sai Gon Port and the Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV), of which ACV is the only one with value of over VND1 trillion.

The market was less bustling in 2015 because there were not high-quality goods for investors to buy. A lot of big companies failed to implement their IPO plans.

Many businesses, including big conglomerates, failed to implement their IPO (initial public offering) plans in 2015, thus leaving investors disappointed.

MobiFone is an example. It planned to carry out equitization in the fourth quarter of 2015 after it finishes the business assessment work in the second quarter and announces the value in the third quarter.

However, there has been no new news about MobiFone equitization, except the old news that MobiFone has decided to choose Ban Viet Securities as the consultant for the equitization instead of Credit Suisse as MobiFone and Credit Suisse could not reach agreements on this.

HSC Securities estimated that MobiFone is valued at $3.4 billion and the value could rise to $4 billion after the IPO.

Vietjet Air is also a name that investors put high hopes on. Earlier this year, a manager of Vietjet Air said the air carrier would start its IPO in October 2015.

In an interview with the local press, Luu Duc Khanh, Vietjet’s CEO, said Vietjet planned to launch an IPO either in Hong Kong or Singapore, hoping to earn $800 million from the IPO.

In late August, it unexpectedly stated that the IPO would be made in late 2015 and in Vietnam instead of a foreign market as initially planned. However, no further move has been taken so far.

Vinalines, the Vietnam National Shipping Lines, also has been quiet though news about its equitization and IPO was first mentioned a long time ago.

Vinalines’ CEO Le Anh Son, at meeting with the Ministry of Transport in 2014, affirmed that it would have an IPO in the first quarter of 2015. But after two delays, it has not made a statement since then.