VietNamNet Bridge - Shares of the Viettel Global Investment Joint Stock Company (Viettel Global) debuted on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) on September 15th with the stock code VGI.

Viettel Global started trading more than 2.2 billion shares at VND15,000 (US$0.67) a piece, valuing at nearly US$1.5 billion.

VGI is the first stock of a company specializing in mobile information services in more international markets than any other company on the UPCoM.

Viettel Global is running business in 10 international markets at present, with 9 markets included in the consolidated business results, including: Cambodia, Laos, Haiti, Myanmar, Burundi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Cameroon, and East Timor.

Peru is the market where Viettel Global achieves the highest revenue and profit in the current time, but the figures are not included in the consolidated results, stemming from Peruvian regulations that any investment in this country must be named by Viettel Group.

“Viettel Global will make more drastic changes in all business activities and shift its focus to new telecommunication services, information technology and finance,” Viettel Global general director Do Manh Hung said at the debut ceremony.

Viettel Global is a sub-unit of the Military Industry and Telecoms Group (Viettel Group), founded in late 2007 with charter capital of VND960 billion.

By 2017, it served nearly 40 million international customers, representing a 13% growth in customer base, more than four times higher than that of the world on average (about 3%) compared to 2016.

The company recorded over VND19 trillion in total revenue for 2017, a yearly increase of 24 percent. Its pre-tax profit reached VND 27 billion ($1.18 million).These figures show considerably positive results in the context of high operating costs due to the large investment required in Myanmar and some new African markets in the early stage.

This year, Viettel Global aims to achieve positive profit even though it newly operates in Myanmar, known as its largest international market (launched this June). The customer growth in 2018 is expected to reach 15% compared to 2017.

At its annual shareholder meeting, Viettel Global shareholders agreed to sell 800 million private shares, worth VND8 trillion, to its parent group Viettel to raise its charter capital to VND30.4 trillion. The capital will be spent on Viettel Global’s activities until 2020. The 800 million shares are banned from trading for one year.

Up to the end of June, 2018, three markets of Viettel, namely Laos, Cambodia, East Timor were subject to capital return and ranked No. 1 in the telecommunications network market. Particularly, Myanmar is considered the largest and most anticipated market in 2018 among9 international markets of Viettel in term of growth.

Viettel Group’s investment capital in the international market is registered with more than $2 billion, of which more than 50% was disbursed. There was a total of $516 million of profit transferred to Vietnam, accounting for nearly 45% of the investment capital.

By 2020, Viettel Global aims to expand its investment market to a population of 400-500 million people and into the world’s top 10 telecommunications companies.

PV