VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) will submit its equitisation plan for Mobifone to the Government by end-2014 and if approved, it will implement this plan in 2015.

A Mobifone employee guides a customer. Last year, the network operator earned VND41 trillion ($1.95 billion) in revenue and more than VND6 trillion ($285.7 million) in profits.

At an industry seminar last Monday, Information and Communications Minister Nguyen Bac Son said that among the 432 domestic enterprises to be equitised, Mobifone, the mobile telecommunications network operator, would make a considerable impact as it would attract a lot of investment capital.

Equitisation, or the partial privatisation of a state company, is considered a reasonable measure that will help Mobifone lure strategic investors to raise its level of competitiveness.

Last June, Mobifone separated from the State-owned Viet Nam Posts and Telecommunications (VNPT) and was placed under MIC management.

The HCM Securities Corporation (HSC) then valued Mobifone at about US$3.4 billion and projected that this may rise to more than $4 billion if the company's revenues and profits continuously increased after its separation from VNPT.

According to the MIC, VNPT will likely hold 20 per cent of Mobifone's registered capital since this is the maximum stake allowed under the cross-ownership regulation of the 2009 Telecommunication Law.

MobiFone and rival Vinaphone were once under the VNPT umbrella. Along with Viettel, the companies account for more than 90 per cent of the Vietnamese telecommunications market.

Launched in 1993, Mobifone was the first telecommunications company to operate in Viet Nam. According to the MIC's 2013 ICT White Book, Mobifone was the second largest mobile network operator with 21.4 per cent of market share, second only to Viettel with 40.5 per cent.

Last year, Mobifone earned VND41 trillion ($1.95 billion) in revenues and more than VND6 trillion ($285.7 million) in profits.

VNS/VNN