PetroVietnam plans to equitise three subsidiaries this year

An oil-rig in the Bach Ho oilfield of Vietsovpetro, a joint venture between the PetroVietnam and Russia's JSC Zarubezhneft. PetroVietnam will equitise three companies in its group in the last months of the year. - VNA/VNS Photo Huy Hung

PetroVietnam still needs to equitise another two of its companies. Stakes in these two, PetroVietnam Power Corporation and PetroVietnam Oil Corporation, will be sold in following years.

PetroVietnam only retained 100 per cent of state capital in the parent company and PetroVietnam Exploration Production Corporation (PVEP), and would sell stakes in other units, according to Le Minh Hong, PetroVietnam's deputy general director.

PetroVietnam has completed valuation of Ca Mau Fertiliser and submitted the necessary information to the Government. The group is awaiting the Government's approval of the company's gas price plan for 2015 and the following years before making the initial public offering (IPO).

With regard to Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical, PetroVietnam is negotiating the sale of 49 per cent of its stakes to Russia's Gazprom Neft. This would make it a liability company with two members.

Hong said the most difficult case was the Dung Quat Shipbuilding Industry Co, as this company had accumulated huge losses and debts. If it fails to sell stakes to the public, PetroVietnam plans to make it a joint stock company with capital contribution from State Capital Investment Corp and the company's employees.

Hong said PetroVietnam has invested in 11 businesses, but most of them are in the oil and gas sectors, with the exception of two banks: Ocean Bank and Viet Nam Public Bank (PVComBank).

The group currently holds 52 per cent of PVComBank's capital and 20 per cent of Ocean Bank's stakes with a total capital investment of over VND5 trillion (US$237 million).

Hong said that PetroVietnam has already prepared road maps for its divestment from these two banks. But the firm hasn't implemented them because the Government asked it to continue investing in PVCombank until 2016.

Meanwhile, the group has to wait for instructions from the State Bank of Viet Nam for its withdrawal from the Ocean Bank.

"Following the Prime Minister's direction, capital divestment from banks and financial companies must follow the instruction of the State Bank of Viet Nam to ensure the safety of the banking system during the restructuring process," Hong said.

Last March, PetroVietnam withdrew VND600 billion ($28 million) from the Lai Vu Industrial Zone by transferring management to the Hai Duong Province's People Committee.