Gov’t earns US$8.49 bln from divestment, equitisation of SOEs

Workers at the Ca Mau 1 Power Plant under PVPOWER management operate equipment for power generation The figure was triple that collected in the 2011-2015 period. Of which, Vietnam collected VND30 trillion (US$1.28 billion) in 2016 and VND140 trillion (US$6 billion) in 2017, with the latter including the record VND110 trillion (US$4.71 billion) Sabeco divestment. The country got VND28.1 trillion (US$1.2 billion) from divestment and equitisation of SOEs in the first half of this year. In the first eight months of this year, 10 out of 85 SOEs saw their equitisation plans approved, with total value of VND29.5 trillion (US$1.26 billion). Some big companies undergoing equitisation included PetroVietnam Power Corporation (PVPower), PetroVietnam Oil Corporation (PVOil) and Power Generation Corporation (Genco 3). The Government would hold 54.1% of shares at the companies after their divestment and equitisation. The remaining shares would be sold through initial public offerings (IPOs) and strategic partners. The total money paid to the State budget from divestment and equitisation reached VND115 trillion (US$4.92 billion), meeting 46% of the set target in the 2016-2020 period. The State-owned capital divestment at equitised firms has been slower than the set targets. The Government successfully divested capital from 17 out of 135 SOEs in the 2017 plan. The remaining companies delayed their plans to this year. This has increased the volume of work to be done in 2018 to up to 181 businesses.