Viet Nam Construction and Import-Export Corp (Vinaconex) plans to make a 10 per cent advance dividend payout in cash for 2018.

The company will pay VND1,000 (US$0.043) per share to shareholders. Vinaconex has more than 441.7 million shares listed on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange under the code VCG. Vinaconex is expected to spend VND441.7 billion ($19 million) on the upcoming dividend payout.

Shareholders yesterday started signing up for the dividend payment. Registration will end on February 15.

The 2018 dividend is scheduled to be paid on February 27, 2019.

Vinaconex shares went up 1.6 per cent yesterday to close at VND25,100 ($1.08) per share. Its shares have rallied by 15 per cent over the last five trading days.

Foreign cap

Last week, Vinaconex decided that at the firm’s annual shareholder meeting this year, the management board would propose raising the foreign ownership limit from zero per cent to 49 per cent.

The firm said in a statement last week that it would propose shareholders remove from the business profile any conditional businesses that preclude foreign ownership, or change any for which the foreign ownership limit has not be addressed by existing laws and regulations.

There are two business areas that limit foreign ownership at zero per cent in Vinaconex: trading cigarettes and exporting labourers. Five conditional businesses in which the limit of foreign ownership has not been defined include trading of forestry and agricultural products, trading property projects and production and distribution of power.

Under existing regulations, a conditional business sector involved in national security issues must keep its foreign ownership share below a certain level.

By changing its business registration the company will restore the limit of foreign capital to 49 per cent, after it was cut to zero in early November 2018 when Vinaconex prepared to sell 349 million shares held by the State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC) and the military-backed telecommunications group Viettel.

Viettel and SCIC earned a total of VND9.37 trillion ($403 million) from selling Vinaconex shares in late November. — VNS