Firms fight over one bone

Vinacomin wished to raise its stake in Thach Khe Iron Joint Stock Company (TIC) from current 30 to 51 per cent, said Vinacomin general director Phung Manh Dac.

“To accelerate the pace of work, Vinacomin has submitted to competent state agencies TIC’s shareholder restructuring plan in which it will hold the steel firm’s 51 per cent stake and concrete schemes to make this plan come true,” Dac said.

He added that TIC’s leadership earlier gave the nod for Vinacomin to work on the steel firm’s shareholder restructuring plan.

TIC’s stake upsurge will follow regulations in the Enterprise Law. Accordingly, by the steel firm’s capital contribution deadline, scheduled on May 15, 2011, disobedient shareholders will lose the right and their stake will be divided to the remaining shareholders based on their capital contribution ratios.

Some other proposed schemes are shareholders whose operations not relevant to mining or steel making activities will withdraw from TIC or a shareholder group will acquire stake of other shareholders wanted to quit the Thach Khe mining project.

“This is a complex project. Since the Thach Khe ore mine is positioned next to the sea and some several dozens to hundreds of metres deep under the sea water it would be extremely hard for mining activities,” Dac said.

Vinacomin will consider whether it further involves in the steel project or not if it could not get a 51 per cent stake in TIC, Dac said in a recent talk with Vietnam Investment Review.

Privately-owned Hoa Phat Group (HPG), the country’s leading steel maker, which reportedly superseded BIDV, one of TIC’s proposed shareholders with a 5 per cent stake, also expressed a desire to acquire a major stake in TIC.

To get the super project off the ground quickly, the best way would be the government appoints a competent shareholder to govern the project, said HPG’s general director Tran Tuan Duong.

HPG recently pooled capital with Mitraco, one of TIC’s founding shareholders with a 28 per cent stake, to found the Hoa Phat Mitraco Mineral Joint Stock Company.

According to Duong, the new firm would entirely source materials from Thach Khe ore mine.

“HPG’s prime objectives in Ha Tinh are to making efforts to facilitate Thach Khe iron steel project and TIC’s two-million capacity tonne per year steel making plant,” Duong said, added that mining activities at Thach Khe mine must strictly follow the set plans and all the products should be used locally but not be exported for sustainable exploitation and management.

TIC, set up in May 2007, carries out core functions of exploiting iron at Thach Khe ore mine in central Ha Tinh province as well as building and running a steel making mill with an initial capacity of two million tonnes per year.

TIC has nine founding shareholders, including Vinacomin with a 30 per cent stake, Ha Tinh Mineral and Trade Corporation (Mitraco) with 28 per cent, Vietnam Steel Corporation with 20 per cent and BIDV, Song Da Corporation and Vinashin 5 per cent each.