State investment agency to sell stakes in 108 firms

By Hung Le June 25, 2019 | 07:45 pm PT

SCIC had divested state capital from a total of 986 companies for VND37 trillion ($1.59 billion). Photo acquired by VnExpress.

Vietnam’s State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC) has announced a list of 108 companies that it will partially divest from late 2019.

The list includes many major names, including insurance company Bao Minh JSC that SCIC holds a 51 percent stake in, information technology giant FPT (6 percent), pharmaceutical firm Ladophar (32 percent), and construction giant Licogi (41 percent).

Vietnam’s biggest producer of dairy products Vinamilk, in which SCIC holds 36 percent, is also included in the list, but specific instructions from the prime minister are required to divest from this business.

The SCIC was set up in 2005 to restructure of State-owned enterprises to make them more efficient and to enable the state to consolidate capital in sectors it considers key.

As of 2018, SCIC had divested state capital from a total of 986 companies for VND37 trillion ($1.59 billion), 4.4 times their book value of VND8.3 trillion ($356.95 million). SCIC withdrew state capital from nine SOEs in 2018, earning VND5.7 trillion ($245.76 million).