Representatives of the Finance Ministry and Vietnam Airlines at the opening ceremony of Vietnam Airlines share trading on Unlisted Public Company Market (File photo) Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam Airlines, the country’s largestaviation corporation, started trading more than 1.22 billion shares on theUnlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) on January 3 at a starting price of 28,000VND (1.24 USD) per share.
As expected, shareprices, listed as HVN, hit the daily limit rise of 40 percent for thefirst trading day to 39,200 VND per share, putting the company’s marketcapitalisation at more than 48 trillion VND.
Before listing, it wastraded at around 40,000 VND per share on the Over-The-Counter (OTC) market.
Vietnam Airlines hascontributed the second largest volume of shares in scale and value on UpCom.The largest is the Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV), whose 2.18 billionshares were listed on November 21.
The corporation expectsthe listing to raise its brand profile and prestige on the market and mobilisecapital for its investment needs. It also sees the listing providing the neededmomentum to continue its restructuring itinerary, issue shares to increasecapital and become a leading national and international firm.
Speaking at the openingceremony of the UPCoM listing, Chairman Pham Ngoc Minh said Vietnam Airlineswas the first and only airlines on the Vietnamese stock market.
He said it was one ofthe first three State-owned enterprises that have found a foreign strategicinvestor – Japan’s ANA Holdings Inc, which pledged to go along with VietnamAirlines in its development process as well as co-operate in exploiting airroute networks and improving corporate administration.
On January 2, VietnamAirlines announced a syndicated profit of 2.5 trillion VND in 2016, a year-on-yearincrease of 140 percent, exceeding its annual target by 7 percent.
Its syndicated revenuewas around 76 trillion VND, up 10 percent over the previous year. Of this, theparent company Vietnam Airlines, which has subsidiaries like Jetstar Pacificand Vietnam Air Services Company (VASCO), earned around 59.1 trillion VND inrevenue and 1.6 trillion VND in pre-tax profit, which is 5.6 times higher thanin 2015.
Vietnam Airlines said ithad contributed around 4.9 trillion VND to the State budget, an 11 percent risefrom the previous year.
It operated around133,000 flights carrying 20.6 million passengers in 2016, up 18.7 percent over2015. It also transported 264,000 tonnes of goods, exceeding its annual targetby 10 percent.
The corporation has anumber of subsidiaries that will enable it to develop and diversify servicepackages and maintain its lead in the market.
Vietnam Airlines isfocused on offering four-star quality service on its domestic and internationalroutes to southeast and northeast Asian countries, European Union andAustralia. Jetstar Pacific operates mainly on domestic routes, so it offershighly competitive prices, as well as on short-distance international routes.VASCO offers aviation services and exploits small local airports incapable ofreceiving big aircraft.
As per the latest datafrom the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA), on the biggest domestic routebetween Hanoi and HCM City, Vietnam Airlines and its subsidiary Jetstar Pacificoccupy 63 percent of the market share, 45 percent of it with parent firm. Thecorporation’s overall market share stands at 60 percent.
In 2017, Vietnam Airlinesplans to continue focusing on safety and security for passengers andmaintaining four-star quality service. It will work closely with itssubsidiaries Jetstar Pacific, Cambodia Angkor Air and VASCO to offer qualityservices to meet increasing demand.-VNA
