Eight medical enterprises are expected to be equitised this year. — Photo dddn.vn

HA NOI (Biz Hub) – The health ministry is speeding up its equitisation plan, with eight medical enterprises expected to be equitised this year.

One of them, the Central Pharmaceutical Joint Stock Company No 3 (Foripharm), has completed its equitisation. The company made an initial public offering last December, and has registered to be listed on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX). Over the past few years, it has posted an average revenue of more than VND450 billion (US$21.4 million) per year, with an average growth rate of more than 30 per cent.

Regarding the equitisation plan, Deputy Health Minister Pham Le Tuan said that one of the key problems facing the equitisation process was the calculation of the value of land and assets as the basis for assessing the value of the enterprises.

A number of these businesses are separate from public service providers and the delimitation of the ownership between them is still unclear.

These medical firms also faced the challenge as to how investors could be attracted during selling of stocks. For example, the Da Lat Pasteur Vaccine Company specialises in producing the typhoid vaccine only, but the demand for this kind of vaccine is very low.

However, it does not mean that medical businesses are not attractive to investors, who are keeping a close watch over their equitisation. The Vietnam Pharmaceutical Corporation (Vinapharm), for example, is one among several businesses that are drawing the attention of investors.

Vinapharm has a registered capital of more than VND1.3 trillion ($61.9 million). It recorded a turnover of nearly VND32.9 trillion ($1.5 billion) last year, a year-on-year increase of five per cent. — VNS