Vietnam’s Saigon Port, the country’s busiest port, will be going on initial public offering (IPO) late this month to raise money to pay off its loans.
The IPO will be held on June 30 by port operator Saigon Port Co. in an attempt to sell a 49% stake to private investors. The state intends to hold at least 51% of the company’s charter capital after the privatization.
The port’s mother firm, the Vietnam National Shipping Lines, will use the fund from the IPO—estimated to be at least US$19 million—to reduce its borrowings.
Assets of the port network located in Ho Chi Minh City are estimated at about VND4 trillion (US$186 million), making it the most anticipated state-share IPO this year.
The Southeast Asian nation has embarked on a campaign to adopt liberal reforms, including enabling partial privatization of state-owned properties and increased foreign investment to further spur the country’s already rapid economic development.
Cambodia port logs box growth
The Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, Cambodia’s largest shipping facility, has seen a double-digit rise in container volume in the first four months of 2015.
Port data showed that the state-owned seaport handled 117,676 twenty-foot-equivalent units (TEUs) from January to April this year, up 19% from 98,635 TEUs in the same period last year, according to a report by Xinhua, China’s state-run news agency.
Containerized cargo tonnage increased 9% to 1.29 million tons from 1.18 million tons, it added.
The port also saw a 7% increase in the import of petroleum, from 410,792 tons in the first four months of last year to 440,070 tons in the same period this year.
So Sieng, director of the port’s planning and statistics department, said the growth reflected the country’s improved economic situation. “We see that there are increases in the exports of garment and footwear products, milled rice, and cassava chips,” he said.
The Sihanoukville Autonomous Port, situated in southwest Cambodia’s Preah Sihanouk province, handles more than 60% of the country’s cargo traffic.
