announced chairman Pham Van Thanh at Petrolimex’s recent annual general meeting of shareholders.

The meeting, initially scheduled for April but then postponed due to COVID-19, took place in the form of videoconferencing on June 26.

According to Thanh, the sale also aims at enhancing liquidity of PLX, the code of the company listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HoSE).

After these transactions, there will be 88 million shares left, which have attracted attention from many potential investors, including Japanese-based oil and gas ENEOS corporation, previously named JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy Corporation. ENEOS currently holds an 8-percent stake in Petrolimex.

At the shareholders’ meeting last year, a representative of ENEOS said they wanted to own 20 percent of the group’s capital.

Petrolimex signed a memorandum on strategic co-operation with ENEOS in December 2014. The Japanese firm has a capital of 30 billion JPY, with the number of its employees reaching 9,206 as of April 1 this year. The company accounts for 50 percent of market shares in Japan in terms of gasoline sales.

Petrolimex has sent an open letter requiring ENEOS to obtain the share and is waiting for the strategic partner’s response.

Petrolimex’s disinvestment plan was at the centre of the question & answer session at this year’s shareholders’ meeting.

Thanh said under the plan approved in Prime Minister’s Decision 1232/QD-TTg for the 2019-2020, the group will work to reduce the State-owned capital to 51 percent this year from the current 75.86 percent.

The group’s general director Pham Duc Thang said the implementation of the disinvestment plan in accordance with Decision 1232 is in fact behind schedule.

According to him, the Government has issued a plan for divestment at all State-owned enterprises, including Petrolimex.  As such, the group’s plan for 2020-2021 will be the continuance of cutting State capital to 51 percent, he noted.

Also, at the meeting, Petrolimex forecast a drop in both revenue and profit this year due to the decline in demand amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The group targets to earn 122 trillion VND (5.3 million USD) in revenue, equivalent to 64 percent of that recorded in 2019. Pre-tax profit is expected to reach 1.57 trillion VND, equalling 28 percent of last year’s figure.

Petrolimex plans to sell 11.47 million cubic meters of petrol in 2020, equivalent to 83 percent of the selling output in 2019. Dividend payout ratio for the year is forecast at 12 percent.

General Director Thang said the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic had caused a sharp decline in oil consumption worldwide due to blockades and travel restrictions.

From January 1, the use of new marine fuels will comply with the provisions of the World Maritime Organisation (IMO), causing the price of new fuels to increase by 50 percent, making sea transport costs rise sharply in 2020 compared to 2019, Thang said.

He added that in 2020, the group focuses on the acceleration of the My Giang Power Center project to carry out trial operations in the fourth quarter of 2025.

The group will also develop a plan to reduce its holding in Petrolimex Insurance Joint Stock Company to 35.1 percent and successfully merging PGBank and HDBank.

“It is necessary for Petrolimex to adjust the business targets this year,” Ho Sy Hung, Deputy Chairman of the Vietnam’s Committee for State Capital Management told the function.

The Committee for State Capital Management will accompany and assist Petrolimex in carrying out the tasks of production, business and development investment in 2020, he stressed./.VNA