Vietnam Airlines is undertaking negotiations with strategic investors in order to complete the conditions for the sale of shares by the end of this month, General Director Pham Ngoc Minh told a conference reviewing five years of business innovation by the Ministry of Transport (MoT) on December 9.

According to Mr. Minh, as this is the first equitization of an airline in Vietnam there have been a number of difficulties and obstacles to address but the process is on schedule.

Vietnam Airlines held a general meeting of shareholders for the first time and officially began operations under the new model from April 1. Along with the conduct of an IPO the process of selecting strategic shareholder began in September.

“We are continuing to negotiate and expect to complete the conditions for the sale of shares at the end of this month, for submission to the Prime Minister in early 2016,” Mr. Minh said.

Though not disclosing any names, Chairman of Vietnam Airlines Pham Viet Thanh told the meeting that it was a Japanese investor.

At the first shareholders meeting Vietnam Airlines announced it would release more than 282 million shares (or 20 per cent of its charter capital) to no more than three strategic investors, who must be airlines or financial investors.

The sale price to strategic investors will be determined by their level of committed support but will be no lower than VND22,300 ($0.9) per share. At this price Vietnam Airlines would receive nearly VND6.3 trillion ($277.2 million) from the issuance.