The Petro Center Corporation (Petro Mien Trung), was listed for the first time on Thursday, on the HCM City Stock Exchange (HOSE).

Under the stock code of PMG, the company put up 33 million shares on offer, at a reference price of VND14,000 (US$0.62) per share, and finished trading by the end of the first session at VND16,800 ($0.75) per share.

The company currently set the level of foreign investor’s ownership at 49 per cent, operating margin of 16 per cent and a market capitalisation of $24.7 million.

Petro Mien Trung hopes to achieve a payout ratio of 10 per cent in 2018, while keeping post tax income at $1.82 billion.

As a member company of the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group, Petro Mien Trung started with an initial charter capital of VND10 billion ($446,000), which it has since increased to VND330 billion ($14.7 million) as of the end of 2017.

According to its 2017’s financial report, the company’s post-tax profit was VND38.29 billion ($1.7 million) with total owner’s equity of $21.9 billion, having increased its assets by 32.66 per cent in the first three quarters of 2017.

Tran Thi Quyen Linh, HOSE representative, said that via this listing, the company will gain better access to public investment and favourable conditions in attracting investment funds.

Linh said that the HOSE expected Petro Mien Trung to comply with national law in the field of finance and securities, meeting strict regulations implementation of information disclosure and transparency in financial situation, investment and business activities to its investors, the authorities and the general public.

Nguyen Tien Lang, Petro Mien Trung’s chairman, said that the company aims to gain more market share for its own brands of PM Gas, Picnic Gas, and Vgas across the country.

The company’s main business is gas cylinder production, with 98 per cent of annual revenue concentrated on the sales of around 1.4 million gas-related industrial and household products.

At the moment, the company focuses on its business activities that include liquid petroleum gas production and storage, in the central and southern Vietnamese markets.

In recent times, increasing supply and demand has brought the company a larger share of the market and positive business results. — VNS