The French corporation Aeroports de Paris (ADP) is in negotiations with the Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV) to purchase ACV shares.

With the approval of the Vietnamese government, ADP and ACV hope to reach an agreement and complete the transaction within a few months. ADP aims to become ACV’s strategic shareholder with a 20 per cent of total shares, ACV’s General Director Le Manh Hung said.

According to Hung, ACV hopes to finalise its deal with ADP before it finishes transferring its shares from the unlisted public company market (UPCoM) to the HCM Stock Exchange.

Augustin de Romanet de Beaune, chairman and chief executive officer of ADP, met with Minister of Transport Truong Quang Nghia early this month, and he assured that the two sides are near a total agreement.

While ACV plans to list shares on the HCM Stock Exchange at the end of 2017, ADP had initiated a 30 per cent buyout of ACV’s shares even before the former’s initial public offering in 2015, in which 77.8 million shares were auctioned at VND11,800 (53 US cents) per share.

In March 2016, ACV agreed to sell 7.4 per cent of its shares to ADP at VND13,100 per share.

ADP was the first investor to contact ACV for a strategic partnership in 2015, just two days after the Government approved ACV’s equitisation plan and will surpass the Singaporean Changi Airport Group, the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) and VinaCapital Group to become ACV’s strategic shareholder.

As of November 2016, 2.1 billion shares were listed on the UPCoM. Currently, ACV’s shares are trading at about VND51,000 ($2.29).

The company’s net profit in 2016 were VND2.6 trillion ($116.7 million), whereas its charter capital as of the end of 2016 was VND24.07 trillion ($1.08 billion).

​The Vietnamese aviation company planned to sell no more than 10 per cent of shares to any strategic partner, but the firm eventually increased that figure to 20 per cent. It will reduce the State owned share from 95.4 to 75 per cent.

ACV plans to mobilise its capital to enhance airport infrastructure, starting with the Long Thanh International Airport in Dong Nai province, 40 kilometres from HCM City, which is set to replace the city’s Tan Son Nhat airport with an estimated investment of $16 billion. ADP has expressed interest in Long Thanh, having said two years ago it could invest $2 billion in the project.— VNS