HA NOI (Biz Hub) — The foreign share cap was removed for investors in the Viet Nam Dairy Products Joint Stock Company, or Vinamilk.

Vinamilk Chairwoman Le Thi Bang Tam told a shareholders' meeting in HCM City last Saturday that the company will not cap foreign investors' share holdings in it, and the firm will inform shareholders as soon as it completes legal procedures for this issue.

Tam said current regulations enable unlimited foreign ownership in a domestic enterprise without being adopted by a shareholder's meeting. The management board of the company just needs to issue a resolution to execute the matter.

She said Vinamilk had also cut several business areas where the Government stipulates conditions and restrictions for foreign investors, such as cultivation, breeding, seed processing and post-harvest services, as well as goods loading, printing, and real estate brokerage and consultancy services.

Vinamilk General Director Mai Kieu Lien said that, by enabling full foreign ownership, the company's leaders will face a big concern: how to preserve its brand identity.

The company now has a market capitalisation value of more than US$7.5 billion, with the value of its brand name alone amounting to $7 billion. Any investors who may want to buy shares of the firm must eye its trade name, she said. Last October, then Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung asked the State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC) to choose suitable times to withraw all State capital from 10 enterprises, including Vinamilk, for more business efficiency.

The SCIC currently holds a stake of more than 45 per cent in Vinamilk, and industry insiders calculate that this State stake is valued at around VND55 trillion, or $2.46 billion, in the market. — VNS