Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) plans to sell 20 per cent stake, equivalent to VND4.35 trillion (US$194.77 million), to foreign and domestic investors through open auction in 2018.

Each share has the face value at VND10,000.

This information is key content in an ACV report sent to the Ministry of Transport after the Prime Minister approved the list of 406 State-owned enterprises marked for divestment from now until 2020. Divestment rate of State capital at ACV will be 20 per cent to touch 75.4 per cent of the registered capital by 2018.

The specific offering rate will depend on the sale plan approved by authorised bodies and the actual situation of the market to ensure the highest interests of the State. The sale may be conducted once or several times.

ACV is publicly auctioning State capital to ensure publicity and transparency as well as to stabilise the stock market.

The Ministry of Transport will select independent consultancy agencies to set up plans for sale of State capital.

According to the equitisation plan approved by the Prime Minister, assets in airfields serving flight operations will not be equitised but transferred to the State.

"This may affect the attractiveness of the State capital offering at ACV because domestic and foreign investors cannot assess the entire rights and obligations of ACV in the future," an ACV official told Vietnam News Agency.

Another difficulty that may affect the result of the sale of State capital at ACV is that the ability to absorb stocks in the UPCoM market is not high because the liquidity of this market is lower than that of the Ho Chi Minh City Stock Exchange (HoSE) and the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX). Further, transactions of State capital at large enterprises are usually conducted on the HoSE or HNX.

ACV is actively pushing the negotiation process with the transport ministry on issues related to assets in the airfield, which is the main barrier making the corporation unqualified to list on HoSE. If the negotiation is completed successfully this year, ACV can delist from UPCoM and move to HoSE in the next six months.

ACV currently has a monopoly on trading, managing and operating 22 international and domestic airports throughout the country, with 65 per cent of the revenue coming from duty-free sales at airports.

The corporation’s targets of total revenue and profit-before-tax this year are VND13.29 trillion and VND3.67 trillion, respectively.

Earlier, ACV officially operated as an equitised company since April 1, 2016, after it sold more than 77.8 million shares during the initial public offering on HoSE.

ACV has registered capital of VND21.77 trillion, equal to 2,177 million shares. The shares have been traded on the UPCoM market since November 21, 2016, with price fluctuating between VND58,000 and VND87,900 in the recent 60 transactions (from August 31 to November 23, 2017). — VNS