VietNamNet Bridge - As soon as the State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC) announced the sale of shares as part of its disinvestment plan, private investors registered to take everything SCIC wanted to sell.

All the 2.3 million shares of the Rang Dong Light Source & Vacuum Flask JSC (RAL) SCIC offered were sold at the September 7 trading session. Attracted by the high profits made by RAL, private investors bought all the shares that the second largest shareholder sold.

RAL is one of many enterprises SCIC has to disinvest from, as scheduled. Since the beginning of September, it has withdrawn capital from the Investment & Construction Works No 742 JSC, Information Technology JSC, PetroVietnam Telecom & Automation and Docimexco.

It still needs to disinvest from 229 more enterprises this year, including very small ones with charter capital of VND2 billion and very large ones such as Vinaconex with VND4.417 trillion worth of capital.

In the case of RAL, at the company’s 2015 shareholders’ meeting, the company’s Trade Union, its largest shareholder, showed its willingness to buy all the shares from SCIC to raise its ownership ratio to 59.94 percent.

SCIC has successfully withdrawn capital from many enterprises so far this year, including Da Lat Real Estate JSC of which it held 30 percent of capital and Vietfracht (43.12 percent).

In 2014, private investors also bought the shares of FIT (investment company) and Cuu Long Pharmacy, Vikoda and Vinh Hao (mineral water) from SCIC.

SCIC noted that it was more favorable to sell shares in the first six months of the year than in previous years. It fulfilled 79 percent of the share sales plan, or 2.7 times higher than the same period last year. 

This was attributed to the high quality of the goods on sale and the changes in the selling method. SCIC now can sell shares through private negotiations, transactions on the stock market, or auctions.

In general, businesses have benefited from the government’s disinvestment plan. 

The ranking of the 50 most effective businesses in Vietnam released by Nhip Cau Dau Tu journal in the last four years showed that most businesses have seen considerable improvement in turnover, post-tax profit, and ROE (return on equity) after the state withdrew capital.

In fact, not only businesses, but SCIC also benefited from the state’s disinvestment. In the case of RAL, SCIC got VND114 billion from the share sale, while the initial investment was VND23 billion if calculating the share face value.

SCIC recently offered to sell 37 percent of shares of Da Nang Book and School Equipment (BED) at the starting price of VND40,200 per share, while the market price is VND21,000 only. 

NCDT