The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) will submit its plan to offload part of the State’s capital in Sabeco to Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue by October 20.

According to the Steering Committee for Business Renovation and Development, the ministry that represents the Government to administrate the State’s investment in Sabeco will sell 53.59 per cent stake in the brewer’s charter capital.

If completed, the deal will reduce the State’s ownership in the beer producer to 36 per cent from the current 89.6 per cent. The new percentage of ownership will assure the Government’s veto right when the company makes decisions.

It is not known how MoIT will sell its ownership in Sabeco, the country’s largest domestic brewer. Market speculators forecast the ministry could divide its stake in the brewer into various packages and sell them via auctions.

The value of the for-sale shares is estimated at US$4.2 billion. Sabeco has maintained charter capital of VND6.4 trillion (US$284.4 million) since its equitisation took place in 2008.

In 2008, Sabeco offered 10 per cent of its total shares for sale, of which half were purchased by Dutch brewing company Heineken.

A number of institutional investors and companies have expressed interest in buying Sabeco shares following the Vietnamese Government’s decision to reduce its ownership in the southern brewer.

These potential companies include Australia-based Carlton & United Breweries – member of Belgian Anheuser-Busch InBev, Thai Beverage and Heineken.

Shares of Sabeco traded on the HCM Stock Exchange under code SAB, up 2.2 per cent to close last Friday at VND272,000 ($12) per share. At this price, Sabeco’s market capitalisation reached VND174.4 trillion.

Expectations that the Government would sell its stake in Sabeco helped the share price jump nearly 110 per cent since its listing on December 6, 2016.

In 2016, Sabeco recorded VND30 trillion in revenue and VND4.6 trillion in post-tax profit, a yearly increase of 10 per cent and 28 per cent, respectively.

In the first half of 2017, the company posted VND15.75 trillion in revenue and VND2.56 trillion in post-tax profit.

Sabeco reportedly owns 40 per cent of Viet Nam’s beer market. The company has targeted revenue of VND34 trillion for 2017. — VNS