The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) on Wednesday announced the State divestment from Sai Gon Beer Alcohol Beverage Joint Stock Company, better known as Sabeco.

The divestment will be made on the principle of transparency, ensuring the highest benefit to the State, based on market price, securing foreign ownership in accordance with law and proposing solutions to preserve and develop the Vietnamese beer’s brand name, MoIT said.

Important information such as the size of the share sale, initial selling price and the number of shares offered to foreign investors has not been disclosed as the detailed plan is still being built, which MoIT expects to complete by December this year.

The sale will be conducted in a competitive offering of shares among eligible investors in accordance with the regulations relevant to the share sale in Sabeco set by the MoIT.

The sale is forecast to be worth up to trillions of Vietnamese dong and will attract the attention of both domestic and foreign investors.

To ensure the highest efficiency of the divestment, MoIT has asked the State Securities Commission, the HCM Stock Exchange and the Ministry of Public Security to closely oversee the trading of Sabeco’s shares, coded SAB on the HCM Stock Exchange, through this year-end to detect and prevent unusual transactions.

Sabeco is Viet Nam’s largest beer producer, which holds about 40 per cent of the nation’s US$6.5 billion beer market and is attractive to foreign investors.

However, Bloomberg earlier reported that some potential foreign bidders for Sabeco’s shares said the company is being overvalued at its current share price.

Sabeco’s shares have declined for seven straight sessions to nearly VND271,000 per share ($11.94) on Wednesday, but it has still recorded a strong growth of over 37 per cent since the start of this year. – VNS