A Vietnam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines) cargo ship. Vinalines plans to divest capital from 13 member companies this year. — Photo baodautu.vn

State-owned Vietnam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines) plans to divest capital from 13 member companies this year.

The corporation will reduce its ownership in six businesses and divest all of its capital from seven others.

Vinalines will reduce their ownership in Viet Nam Ocean Shipping Joint Stock Co (Vosco) from 51 per cent to 49 per cent, in Vinaship JSC from 51 per cent to 36 per cent, in Cai Lan Port Investment JSC from 56.58 per cent to 51 per cent, and in High-Tech Goods Transportation Co Ltd from 56 per cent to 51 per cent.

The seven from which Vinalines will divest all capital are Vietnam Sea Transport And Chartering Joint Stock Company (49 per cent), Seagull Shipping JSC (26.46 per cent), International Labor And Services JSC (24.9 per cent), Asia Investment Trading Maritime JSC (12.94 per cent), Dong Do Maritime JSC (48.97 per cent), Oriental Shipping and Trading JSC (49 per cent) and Vinalines Nha Trang JSC (98.34 per cent).

With this divestment plan, the liquidation of vessels and impact of its shrunken market share in temporary import for re-export services, the firm forecasts its consolidated revenue this year will decrease by 14.5 per cent from 2019 to over VND10.31 trillion (US$444.26 million).

Since 2013, when Vinalines began restructuring, the firm has divested capital from many companies, cutting the number of its subsidiaries from 73 to 35.

Notably, it has divested all capital invested in enterprises operating in other sectors like banking, securities, insurance and real estate to focus on its main business sectors of seaports, sea transportation and maritime services.

Divestments from poorly-performing subsidiaries have helped slash the group’s debt from more than VND67.5 trillion (before restructuring began) to over VND17 trillion, the corporation noted. — VNS