PetroVietnam Oil Corporation (PV Oil), a subsidiary of PetroVietnam, is planning to sell a 40 per cent stake to strategic investors in the upcoming equitisation expected by the end of June this year.

The list of five potential bidders will be proposed to the Government this month.

There are some 10 strategic investors, including major oil companies from Japan, South Korean, Thailand, Viet Nam and the Middle East, which have expressed interest in acquiring PV Oil stakes.

The firm expects to gain US$270 million by selling stock to one to two investors, PV Oil’s President and CEO Cao Hoai Duong told Bloomberg.

The company declinied to comment when contacted by Viet Nam News.

PV Oil plans to offer 15 per cent of its shares in its initial public offering (IPO) in the first half of this year before debuting on the HCM Stock Exchange. It is considered one of the largest and most anticipated IPOs of 2017.

Saigon Securities Inc has estimated PV Oil as the second largest petroleum retailer in Viet Nam with 22 per cent market share, behind Vietnam National Petroleum Corporation (Petrolimex). The oil firm aims at tripling the number of gas stations to 1,550 outlets by 2020.

PV Oil is seeking strategic partners to enter into more successful mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Its retail system has also expanded rapidly thanks to a variety of M&A with local enterprises. The company plans to spend $280 million for acquisitions in the next five years, with some $170 million coming from its cash holdings and the rest from borrowings.

PV Oil earned VND34 trillion ($1.5 billion) in revenue and VND530 billion in gross profit last year.

Its parent company PetroVietnam has planned to reduce its holdings here to less than 50 per cent by 2020, Phan Dang Tuat, head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Steering Committee for Enterprise Reform and Development, was quoted as saying in Oil Gas Vietnam Forum’s website oilgas.vn. — VNS