Sabeco applies for listing on HCM City stock exchange

Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam's largest brewer Sai Gon Alcohol, Beer and Beverage Corporation (Sabeco), known for its iconic Saigon and 333 brands, has filed a listing application to the HCM Stock Exchange, eight years after its initial public offering in January 2008.

The company's decision took into account its listing standards, market size and reputation, liquidity and investor interest of the two national stock exchanges, in which the HCM Stock Exchange gains an upper hand over the Hanoi Stock Exchange.

The listing timetable, as well as the reference price for the first trading day remains unclear, but Sabeco expects to finalise these issues by the end of this month.

Late in September, the Ministry of Industry and Trade approved Sabeco's listing on the HCM City's exchange and requested that the beer producer select a consulting firm to perform the listing procedures.

The listing of local beer producers has attracted big investors' attention over the last two months after the Government urged equitised State-owned companies to list shares on the stock exchange.

On October 28, 2016, Hanoi Beer Alcohol and Beverage Joint Stock Corporation, known as Habeco, debuted its almost 232 million shares on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM), the concentrated market under the management of the Hanoi Stock Exchange.

Habeco's stock prices have steadily risen from 39,000 VND (1.75 USD) per share on the first trading day to 125,900 VND on November 7.

Meanwhile, shares of Sabeco are trading on the Over The Counter (OTC) Market at the price of over 130,000 VND per share, up 80 percent over the price recorded in August.

Sabeco's stock price is expected to be around 110,000 VND to 125,000 VND per share. With a total listing of 641 million shares, the company's market value is estimated at 70-80 trillion VND (3-3.6 billion USD).

Sabeco consolidated its reputation as the top beer producer in Vietnam with nine-month revenues of over 21.8 trillion VND, up 9 percent year-on-year, of which sales of beer made up 86 percent of total sales, equivalent to 18.8 trillion VND, or 1.2 billion litres of beer.

Its consolidated after-tax profits reached nearly 3.7 trillion VND, of which the parent company earned 3.2 trillion VND, up 27 percent year-on-year and completing its target for the whole year.

The State now holds 89.6 percent of Sabeco's charter capital and it earlier planned to divest in two phases. The first tranche of stake sale will be 53.6 percent of ownership and be conducted by the end of this year while the remaining 36 percent will be transferred next year.-VNA