Saigontourist Holding Company – the country’s leading tourism services provider – and its subsidiary Saigontourist Travel Service Company are expected to go public later this year, said the group’s top executive.

Saigontourist employees are at a ceremony for welcoming international tourists who come to Vietnam by sea. Both Saigontourist Holding Company and its subsidiary Saigontourist Travel Service Company are expected to go public later this year

Tran Hung Viet, general director of Saigontourist, told the Daily on February 1 that the two companies will carry out their equitization plans at the same time later this year.

The holding company is doing a corporate evaluation, and establishing criteria for selecting strategic shareholders and training manpower in preparation for a development strategy in the equitization process, he added.

“Saigontourist (including its subsidiary) will retain a 65% stake during the initial stage of equitization,” he said.

The general director said the equitization process is heavily dependent on the outcome of an corporate evaluation. Therefore, Saigontourist has proposed that the HCMC government issue a decision transferring assets to the company as soon as possible.

“If pricing policies are approved in a timely manner, we will equitize (the companies) in line with the approved schedule,” he said.

Saigontourist said in its 2017 performance report that it served 2.87 million tourists last year, a 14.5% rise against the previous year. Average room occupancy in its hotel segment reached 68%.

The company made VND20.3 trillion (US$894 million) in revenue, and over VND4.9 trillion in gross profit, up 4.1% and 5.5% from a year earlier respectively.

It expects to serve three million tourists, and earn VND21.2 trillion in revenue this year.

Founded in 1975, Saigontourist Holding Company has more than 100 hotels, resorts, restaurants, travel companies, and entertainment parks across the country.

SGT