Vietnam National Chemical Group (Vinachem) will continue to withdraw its capital from four subsidiaries in 2021.

This is part of its plan to restructure the group for 2021-25 period submitted to Commission for the Management of State Capital at Enterprises (CMSC).

These four companies include Duc Giang Chemical Group JSC (DGC), Lam Thao Fertilisers and Chemicals JSC (LAS), Viet Tri Chemical JSC (HVT), and Vietnam Chemicals Import and Export JSC (Vinachimex).

Currently, Vinachem holds 8.85 per cent of charter capital of DGC, equivalent to more than 15.14 million shares. In LAS, HVT and Vinachimex, Vinachem’s ownerships are 69.8 per cent, 68.5 per cent and 26.28 per cent, respectively.

The chemical group said it had employed consultancies to carry out capital transfer at four above-mentioned companies.

Previously, in the plan to restructure Vinachem for the 2017-20 period approved by the Government, the group was also required to completely withdraw capital from 19 companies. Vinachem has managed to carry out valuations of 22 companies and put 13 companies up for auction at stock exchanges. So far, the chemical group has completely divested from three companies and partly divested from five.

Vinachem said its divestment process has been hindered due to the lack of investors interested in the share sales, the difficulty in valuation of land use rights and the escrow of some shares by authorities.

In late 2019, Vinachem put more than 11.45 million DGC shares up for auction at a reserve price of VND49,100 (US$2.15) apiece, two times higher than the market price at that time. The auction turned out to be unsuccessful as only two investors registered to buy just 200 shares.

In the first nine months of this year, Vinachem revenue reached around VND37.12 trillion ($1.64 billion), up 26 per cent compared to the same period of 2020. — VNS