The Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam will not undergo equitisation this year as previously scheduled, pursuant to a new directive issued by the Government Office.

Under Directive No5060/VPCP-DMDN, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung approved extending the deadline for BIDV to complete its appraisal of corporate value to December 31,2009.

However, the bank has previously delayed equitisation due to unfavourable conditions on the stock market.

The bank signed a consulting contract with Morgan Stanley in July 2007 and submitted a roadmap for equitisation to the Government in September that year under which the bank would have made an IPO in the fourth quarter of 2007 and finalized listing applications on the stock market in the first quarter of 2008.

After the first delay, the bank then asked to complete its appraisal of corporate value by December 31, 2008. The Government approved the proposal and ordered the bank’s management board to equities by 2009.

Of the major State-owned banks, only Vietcombank and Vietinbank have completed equitisation and listed shares on the stock market.

In 2008-10, the Government had plans to restructure 1,535 enterprises, of which 948 enterprises would be equitised.

Last year’s stock market gloom brought the process of equitising State-owned enterprises to a snail’s pace, with only 70 State-owned enterprises equitised./.