Vietnam Airlines announces first trading session on HSX

Nguyen Hoang Anh, chairman of the Commission for the Management of State Capital at Enterprises, attended the opening of the first trading session of Vietnam Airlines shares on HSX

According to Decision No.115/QD-SGDHCM dated April 11, 2019, HSX has approved the listing of 1,418,290,847 HVN shares at the price of VND14.128 trillion ($614.26 million, at par value of VND10,000 – $0.434).

With reference price on the first trading day of VND40,600 ($1.77) with a fluctuation band of ± 20 per cent, the market capitalisation of Vietnam Airlines (VNA) at HSX is estimated at VND57 trillion, equivalent to $2.5 billion.

Nguyen Hoang Anh, chairman of the CMSC, said: “Vietnam Airlines has become the enterprise with the highest capital value to list on HSX to date this year, and also one of the two companies that had listed on the HSX among the 19 state-owned corporations represented by the CMCS. This is a result of enhanced strategic vision that has been implemented by Vietnam Airlines’ Board of Directors. From our perspective, Vietnam Airlines’ state capital has proved to be an effective investment that provides exceptional benefits to the state, shareholders, and employees.”

Pham Ngoc Minh, chairman of the VNA Board of Directors, said: “The listing on HSX marks an important milestone for VNA to further leverage its legacy, standardise corporate operations, and open up opportunities to attract investment. This has also reaffirmed our ongoing commitment to improving the liquidity of HVN shares and maximising shareholder value.”

Pham Ngoc Minh, chairman of the Board of Directors of Vietnam Airlines, delivered a speech at the event

Earlier, all HVN shares were removed from listing on the UPCoM stock exchange on April 23, 2019. After two years of listing on UPCoM, HVN was one of the stocks with the best liquidity and is among the top five most-traded stocks with an average of more than 800,000 shares traded per session, equivalent to the trading value of about VND30.6 billion ($1.3 million, based on average HVN share price in 2018). This shows the investors’ increasing expectations for the carrier.

VNA has achieved remarkable growth after switching to a joint stock company model since April 1, 2015 with revenue and profit targets higher than in the previous years. In 2018, VNA nearly exceeded the record high of VND100 trillion ($4.3 billion) in revenue for the first time.

The group concluded another year of growth due to optimised operational efficiency and market-driven solutions, pocketing the highest consolidated pre-tax profit of VND3.3 trillion ($143.5 million), exceeding 36.8 per cent of the plan, of which the parent company contributed VND73.227 trillion ($3.2 billion) in revenue and VND2.418 trillion ($105.13 million) in pre-tax profit, exceeding 23.4 per cent compared to the target set at the 2018 annual general shareholders’ meeting. The financial indicators of VNA have improved significantly as the debt to equity ratio was 2.58 at the end of 2018 and will be reduced to 2.41 by the end of 2019.

The airline’s efforts to enable innovation and development have been recognised by international and national communities through a series of prestigious awards. In 2018, VNA received the prestigious four-star Airline Certification from Skytrax for the third consecutive year.

With a brand equity of $416 million, according to Brand Finance, VNA continues to move one position upward in the ranking in the top 10 most valuable brands in Vietnam. On the stock market, VNA was honoured by HNX by being voted into the top 10 UPCoM Enterprises announcing transparent and public information for the period 2017-2018. In its quest for excellence, the flag carrier is continuing to improve all elements of its service to reach five-star status.

In the first quarter of 2019, VNA continued its growth momentum with nearly VND26 trillion ($1.13 billion) and VND1.579 trillion ($68.65 million) of consolidated revenue and pre-tax profit respectively, achieving 45 per cent of the annual plan.

The parent company reached VND19.332 trillion ($68.7 million) in revenue, up 5.5 per cent over the same period last year, and VND1.279 trillion ($55.6 million) in pre-tax profit, up 36.6 per cent. This acts as an important step to boost VNA’s strong earnings performance, increasing operational efficiency and benefits to the stakeholders.