HaiPhong Port to launch May IPO
HaiPhong Port, the biggest port in the country's northern part, is expected to have an initial public offering (IPO) in May.
Deputy Director of the Vietnam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines) Vu Khac Tu was quoted by Transport newspaper as saying that Vinalines' members' council decided to approve the value of the HaiPhong Port as a preparatory step towards equitisation.
Accordingly, HaiPhong Port is valued at US$205.7 million, as much as 201 percent of its book value. The state's holdings in the port are estimated at US$155.6 million.
According to Tu, HaiPhong Port's equitisation plan was scheduled to be approved by mid-April. It then plans to go for an IPO and will seek strategic partners within a month and a half after that. Effective July, HaiPhong Port will operate under the joint stock corporation model, he added.
Vu Anh Minh from the Ministry of Transport said that 25 percent of the State's holdings in HaiPhong Port will be put on sale.
Last April, the Prime Minister pushed for privatisation of the country's major ports, including HaiPhong, SaiGon, QuangNinh, and Da Nang ports, with a directive that 25 percent of the State's holdings in these ports should be made available to the public through IPO's and it must be implemented within the year 2014.
This is aimed to diversify investment resources for the development of ports.