Vinalines holds workshop before IPO

Leading Vietnamese shipping company Vinalines seeks strategic partners to expand sustainably

The event, as part of the sixth Sea Asia 2017 in Singapore – a premier maritime conference and exhibition – attracted businesses and companies operating in the fields of marine transport, navigation services, and banking.

This year, Vietnam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines) attended the event for the first time, together with more than 420 powerful businesses and groups in the industry, including those from Singapore, China, Japan, South Korea, the UAE, the UK, the Netherlands, and Norway.

Le Quang Trung, head of Vinalines’ Market Development Department, said that Vinalines is implementing equitisation and is set to launch its initial public offering (IPO) in December 2017, with the chartered capital of $550 million.

“The state will hold 65 per cent of the chartered capital at the parent company while strategic investors will have an opportunity to hold up to 17.25 per cent of the chartered capital,” Trung said.

Currently, the shipping giant owns a shipping fleet with a total load capacity of over two million tonnes, accounting for around 25 per cent of Vietnam’s national shipping fleet. This enables Vinalines to meet requirements of shippers and contribute to the country’s expanded trading network.

Vinalines is also famous for shipping services and logistics in Vietnam, with a wide network of warehouses and modern inland container depots in many cities and along the country’s influential seaports.

Vinalines also operates 15 seaports with a total capacity of 75 million tonnes a year, making up 23.53 per cent of the country’s total number of piers, and 30.37 per cent of the country’s total length of piers. Vinalines’ seaports are located in strategically important locations for goods trading as well as regional economic development.

Last year, the shipping giant reported better business performance. It earned a pre-tax profit of VND923 billion ($41.95 million) and VND1.139 trillion ($51.77 million) in port operations and maritime services, respectively.

The volume of goods shipped via Vinalines’ ports rose 17 per cent year-on-year during 2016, of which container throughput ascended by an estimated 22 per cent, compared to the country’s aggregate shipping figures of 7 per cent and 11 per cent, respectively.

Vinalines has four foreign joint-venture ports, including CMIT, SP-PSA, SSIT, and CICT. All of them reported better performance results in 2016, signalling an upward trend.

These are positive result as 2016 was a year of extreme difficulties for the global shipping industry, with many leading shipping lines in the world incurred big losses. Meanwhile, many others went bankrupt or had to merge to survive.