A worker loads beer at Sai Gon Beer, Alcohol and Beverage Corporation (SABECO). SABECO plans to attract strategic partners to sell 20 per cent of its stake. — VNA/VNS Photo Cong Thu

HA NOI (Biz Hub)— The Sai Gon Beer-Alcohol-Beverage Joint Stock Corporation (Sabeco) would continue to cut the State holding from 89.59 per cent to 40 per cent of its charter capital.

The Dau Tu (Investment) newspaper quoted sources as saying this. The Ministry of Industry and Trade has sent a proposal to the Government about implementing the sale of stakes in two phases. The State holding would be cut to 65 per cent in the first phase and to 40 per cent in the second phase, sources said.

It is highly probable that the proposal would be approved as the Government has previously said that the beer industry was among the sectors where the State did not want to hold controlling stakes of 51 per cent and above.

Being a giant in the beverage industry, with a 45 per cent market share, Sabeco had attracted the attention of investors amid the hastened privatisation of State-owned enterprises. It missed the deadline for getting listed since 2008 when the initial public offering was implemented.

Sabeco was being traded on the over-the-counter market at about VND65,000 or US$3 per share.

It plans to seek strategic partners to sell 20 per cent of its stakes in the first phase as a step towards being listed on exchanges, the company's shareholders were told in a meeting held in May.

The company had attracted the attention of several foreign rivals such as Heineken and Asahi.

In its IPO in 2008, Sabeco's shares were sold at VND70,003 or $3.3 per share.

With a production capacity of 1.8 billion litres of beer per year, Sabeco sold 1.33 billion litres of beer last year, up 10.3 per cent over the previous year.

Viet Nam is among the countries having the highest beer consumption levels, with an estimated 3 billion litres consumed last year. — VNS