The State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC) will sell 21.79 per cent stake at Viet Nam Construction and Import-Export Joint Stock Corporation (Vinaconex) on December 8.

This amounts to more than 96.25 million shares.

At a roadshow held on Thursday at the Ha Noi Stock Exchange, SCIC said that the minimum bidding price would be announced one day before the auction, based on the closing price at the trading session.

Shares of Vinaconex, listed on the northern bourse as VCG, rose 0.8 per cent to trade at VND25,800 (US$1.14) per share, on Friday morning.

Nguyen Duc Chi, chairman of SCIC, said if the auction was successful, SCIC’s stake in Vinaconex would be reduced to 36 per cent, but it would still remain a major stakeholder, with the right of veto.

Chi said SCIC would continue to divest from Vinaconex by 2020, as VCG’s business lines were not sectors that the State would maintain controlling stakes under the Prime Minister’s Decision 58. He added that the roadmap for divestments from VCG would be carefully considered to ensure benefits for both the sides.

One of the business lines of Vinaconex was property, which had a cap for foreign investors’ holding, at 49 per cent.

In the first nine months of this year, Vinaconex’s revenue was estimated at nearly VND6.63 trillion, up 17.9 per cent over the same period last year and exceeding its full year’s target by 61 per cent.

The after-tax profit was VND623 billion, rising by 31.3 per cent year-on-year.

VCG would focus on completing a 264.13ha urban complex, Splendora, in the West of Ha Noi and estimated that the project would bring a net profit of hundreds of billions of dong for the company.

SCIC planned to divest from 85 enterprises in 2017. To date, SCIC completed divestments at 20, and the load of work in the remaining months of the year was huge. — VNS