Viet Nam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines) debuted on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) on Monday, but its shares were immediately restricted from trading, according to the Ha Noi Stock Exchange (HNX).

The reason for Vinalines’ stock trading restriction was that the audit agency had refused to release the final assessment of the company’s 2017 combined financial report, HNX said in a statement.

Vinalines’ audit agency had refused to give comments on Vinalines’ financial report because of the firm’s problems with its subsidiaries, the northern market regulator said.

Vinalines is recording an accumulative loss of VND3.2 trillion (US$142.2 million).

Therefore, Vinalines’ shares are now available for trading only every Friday. Vinalines started trading 5.4 million shares on UPCoM with ticker MVN at the starting price of VND10,000 per share ($0.44).

Vinalines shares will trade normally after the problem with audit agency is resolved, HNX said.

The company in early September sold only 5.4 million shares (0.38 per cent of its charter capital) out of registered 489 million shares (34.8 per cent of its charter capital) via an initial public offering (IPO).

Vinalines targets VND144 billion ($6.4 million) in profit in the second half of 2018 after having reported a loss of VND1.1 trillion in the first half. In the next two years, the company forecasts its post-tax profit will rise to VND177 billion and VND233 billion. — VNS