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| SBIC, the new name of Vinashin based on the corporation's restructuring process, to launch IPO by 2015. — Photo VNA |
HA NOI (Biz Hub) — The Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (SBIC) will release its initial public offering (IPO) by 2015, said Chairman Nguyen Ngoc Su.
The corporation expects to equitise four member units, including the Vinashin Corrugated Iron Company, and the Chan May Port, Ha Long and Cam Ranh shipyards this year, said Su to the online VnExpress newspaper.
Five others, including Thinh Long, the Saigon Shipbuilding and Marine Industry Company, the Saigon Shipbuilding Industry Company, and the Bach Dang and Pha Rung shipbuilding companies will go public by 2015.
SBIC, formerly known as Vinashin, has been cooperating with Damen, one of the leading shipyard groups of the Netherlands, to develop business in the Song Cam Shipbuilding Company. This is a positive aspect of the corporation with many years of profitable earnings.
"Damen has expressed its wish to buy more shares of the Song Cam Company as well as of other SBIC companies. We are considering it and will report to the Ministry of Transport. The most important thing is to seek a partner suitable to every company because each has its own characteristics," said Su.
Many big corporations from Finland, Japan and South Korea have also shown interest in becoming partners of SBIC's companies, said Su.
SBIC has completed its first phase of the restructuring process. In the second phase, the Government has allowed restructuring of debts including the Government-guaranteed debt, debt from the official development assistance and the amount lent to Vinashin. Therefore, SBIC has VND21 trillion, or US$1 billion, of domestic debt and about $35 million of foreign debts.
"SBIC and the Ministry of Transport have tried our best. We hope to restructure the basic debts by the second quarter of this year," said Su.
In October last year, Viet Nam listed Government-guaranteed bonds at the Singapore Stock Exchange to help the troubled Vinashin repay its creditors.
The move aimed to help the State-run Vinashin cover a foreign loan worth US$600 million, which was crucial to for the group to repay the foreign debts, and allow it to speed up the badly-needed restructuring of the corporation.
The bonds will be issued for 12-year terms with an annual interest rate of 1 per cent.
The reform of Vinashin was ordered in 2010 after Government inspectors uncovered the group's financial malpractices. At the end of 2009, the company was more than VND86.7 trillion, or $4.1 billion, in debt. — VNS