VNPT looks to get in shape

illustration photo

In late August the telco was unsuccessful in its bid to sell 25 million Maritime Bank stock purchase rights via auction.

Relative to how to deal with these shares according to an dispatch the Maritime Bank forwarded to the State Securities Commission and bank shareholders in early August the bank’s leadership planned to distribute the shares to existing shareholders following the scheme approved at the bank’s 2011 annual shareholder meeting in case of telco’s share purchase right auction drop or the VNPT refused to buy these stocks.

The Maritime Bank deal is the last in a series of deals which have seen the telco attempting to shed excess weight.

Several months ago, VNPT divested part of its share in media firm VMG Media through a dial in which Japan-based NTT Docomo acquired a 25 per cent stake of VMG Media.

After the deal, VNPT’s stake in VMG Media was reduced from 36 per cent to 29 per cent.

VNPT also gave up its share in Ho Chi Minh City-based Saigon Postel Corporation (SPT).

According to the SPT 2010 annual report released in May, VNPT contributed 14.4 per cent of SPT’s chartered capital, tantamount to holding 14.4 per cent of SPT’s stake.

However, VNPT’s ownership rate sank to 11 per cent after SPT sold shares to its two strategic partners. The leading telco is also now no longer a member of SPT’s management board, according to SPT’s deputy general director Ton Minh Thong.

A telco divesting from a bank has one precedent. Eight months ago, CMC Corporation decided to shed its stake in Bao Viet Commercial Joint Stock Bank.

“Our move is to focus investment on core business lines,” said CMC’s financial director Le Thanh Son, adding that in light of the corporation’s development strategy towards 2015 CMC would concentrate on strengthening its fast-growing core lines of information technology, telecoms and e-business.