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Vinalines to try its luck with second public share offering

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The state-owned Vietnam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines) will try a second public share sale of the remaining 480 million shares not purchased at its recent public offering early September, reported Vietnam News. The company said it will come back to the Hanoi Stock Exchange soon to complement its initial public offering (IPO) which attracted little interest.

The offering failed to reach its goal of selling a 34.8% stake for $210m, raising just $2.33m (VDN 54.35bn) on Hanoi Stock Exchange 5 September, nearly 1% of the offered shares. The auction attracted just 42 investors, including 40 individual investors and two organisations, said local media at the time. The highest bid value reached $0.56 per share (VND13,000). 

Vinalines said it will offer up all the shares leftover from the IPO, as well as those which were meant to be sold at preferential rates to its employees and the trade union.

Read more: Vinalines IPO falls sharply short of target

The eligible investors are those who won bidding at the IPO on 5 September, with the price the same as their winning prices at that event. Investors can register to take part in the next offering until 4pm of 30 September, Vinalines said. The date for the future offering has not been released yet.

Vinalines is a major player in shipping, seaport and maritime services with a fleet of 84 vessels totalling 1.8m dwt, but its business activities have continuously recorded losses since 2008. In 2017, the core sector of Vinalines recorded a loss of $26.9m. In the first six months of 2018, Vinalines posted $283.8m in total revenue and $3.13m in pre-tax profit.