PV Oil’s locking of the foreign ownership ratio at 6.6 per cent is a temporary measure before the Government endorses its new capital divestment plan, according to the company’s general director Cao Hoai Duong.

“PV Oil is waiting for the State to approve its new divestment plan,” Duong was quoted as saying on petrotimes.vn, adding that the foreign ownership limit would be scaled up to 49 per cent again after the approval.

He said in the new plan, the company proposed to keep the foreign ratio at 49 per cent, the maximum rate allowed in the petroleum sector in Viet Nam.

The State still holds 80 per cent of PV Oil’s capital after the sale of 20 per cent stake in the initial public offering in January 2018. The planned offering of 45 per cent capital for strategic investors was not carried out due to the short time (three months) between the two share sales regulated by the Government.

In the new divestment scheme, PV Oil still proposes to sell a 45 per cent stake to reduce the State’s holding to 35 per cent.

The divestment is expected to be divided in two lots – a 30 per cent stake and a 15 per cent stake. At present, a number of foreign investors have shown interest in buying the company’s capital, including SK Energy (South Korea), Idemitsu (Japan) and British-Dutch oil giant Shell.

In November last year, SK Energy purchased 3.55 million PV Oil shares and became the company’s second largest shareholder with a holding of 5.23 per cent of capital.

In December, Viet Nam’s second largest petroleum distributor unexpectedly adjusted its cap on foreign ownership from 49 per cent to 6.62 per cent without explanation.

Shares of the company (OIL) are trading on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) at around VND14,000 (US$0.60) per share.

Its consolidated profit before tax in 2018 is expected to reach VND587 billion ($25.2 million), up 17 per cent year-on-year. – VNS