Becamex IDC to hold Vietnam’s 2nd-biggest IPO

Hanoi (VNA) — The Investment and Industrial Development Corporation (Becamex IDC) will float over 311.2 million shares, equivalent to 23.63 percent of its charter capital, in its initial public offering (IPO) on December 1 on the HCM Stock Exchange.

The initial price is set at 31,000 VND (1.37 USD) per share, the company has announced in a public statement.

At this price, the company is valued at 40.83 trillion VND (1.8 billion USD) and expected to collect at least 9.65 trillion VND from the share sale.

This is the second-largest IPO of a State-owned enterprise in the past 10 years since the Vietcombank’s IPO worth 10.5 trillion VND on December 26, 2007.

Established in 1976, Becamex IDC is one of the biggest real estate companies in Vietnam, focusing on developing industrial, residential, urban and transportation infrastructure.

Under the equitisation plan approved by the Prime Minister, the State will retain 51 percent of the company’s charter capital worth 13.17 trillion VND.

About 23.63 percent will be offered in an auction to the public while 4.94 million shares, equivalent to 0.37 percent, will be sold to its employees. The remaining shares (about 25 percent) will be tendered to strategic investors after the IPO.

The IPO is open to both domestic and foreign individuals and institutions.

Becamex has 28 subsidiaries operating in securities, finance, insurance, banking and construction, as well real estate, telecommunications and information technology, besides concrete production, construction materials, mining, pharmaceuticals, healthcare and education.

The company owns four major industrial parks, including My Phuoc Residential and Industrial Park, Vietnam–Singapore Industrial Park, Bau Bang Residential and Industrial Park, and Binh Duong New Township of Industry, Service and Residential.

Rising foreign interest

Recently, foreign investors have showed strong interest in shares of infrastructure development companies, via trades on both stock exchanges and public auctions.

Foreign investors spent a net value of 315 billion VND to purchase shares of Viglacera Corporation (VCG) and 151 billion VND for shares of Tasco JSC (HUT) on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange in the first nine months.

They also paid nearly 2 trillion VND to purchase majority shares of these two companies in their public share auctions or private placements.

In the IPO of Vietnam Urban and Industrial Zone Development Investment Corporation (IDICO) on October 5, foreign investors also picked up 41.3 million shares, equivalent to 74.8 percent of its total offering, at the average winning price of 23,940 VNDper share, a 33.3 percent higher than the initial price.

Besides the expectation of business improvement of State-owned companies after equitisation, some analysts have said infrastructure development firms are usually large-scaled companies with stable operations, meeting the investment criteria of some foreign investment funds. -VNA