VietNamNet Bridge - The Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV), the biggest enterprise in Vietnam’s aviation industry, has asked for the governing body’s permission to start negotiations to find strategic shareholders in January. 

 


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The Phu Quoc International Airport

ACV’s process of looking for strategic partners is reportedly near completion and an important agreement in the aviation sector is believed to be reached soon as ACV has asked the Ministry of Transport (MOT) to allow it to negotiate with a partner from France.

“Aeroports de Paris (ADP) remains the only investor which can satisfy the requirements set by MOT to be eligible for negotiations to become a strategic shareholder,” said an official of ACV.

“ACV has proposed to MOT to approve the plan to conduct negotiations prior to January 31, 2016,” he said.

Three candidates have expressed their willingness to become ACV’s strategic shareholders. 

Of these, ADP was the first one speaking out about its aspiration. The other two included Changi Airport International, a subsidiary of Singaporean Changi Group, and the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV), a 100 percent Vietnamese financial institution.

Three candidates have expressed their willingness to become ACV’s strategic shareholders. 
In fact, IPP, known as a luxury goods distributor which is a big shareholder of a company running a duty-free shop chain at the airports, once also attempted to become ACV’s shareholder. However, it later decided to quit.

A source from MOT confirmed that ADP is the only candidate which can satisfy the requirements. 

The investor from Singapore submitted documents about its holding company, while it should have submitted documents about the subsidiary – the legal entity which will make investment.

BIDV really wants to make investment in ACV as a strategic shareholder, committing to buy 5 percent of ACV’s stakes. 

However, it has not been shortlisted because of its small stockholder equity of $1.56 billion, far below the required $5 billion level.

VnExpress quoted its sources as reporting that the partner from France has shown its strong determination to cooperate with ACV by asking to sign a memorandum of understanding about the strategic partnership to conduct negotiations. It is expected that the deal would get completed within the first half of 2016.

ADP is a global group with stockholder equity of $4.81 billion by the end of 2014. 

The European group now runs 37 large airports all over the world via its subsidiary – Airports de Paris (ADPM), including the European largest airports such as Paris Charles de Gaulle and Paris Orly.

In 2014, the airports in Europe, Asia and South America run by ADP had revenue of $3.4 billion and post-tax profit of $0.5 billion.

The State plans to hold 75 percent of stake in ACV, while 20 percent of stake would be sold to strategic shareholder.


VNE