SCIC continues divestment, restructuring of enterprises

Hanoi (VNA) – The State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC) divested State capital from 120 businesses in 2015, earning 94.49 trillion VND (200.17 million USD) from a book value of 1.68 trillion VND (74.9 million USD).

This was a 2.7-time increase, achieving 176 percent of the target.

As of December 31, 2015, SCIC's portfolio comprised 197 enterprises, with the State capital's book value being more than 20 trillion VND (891.7 million USD), accounting for 23 percent of the charter capital and a market value of nearly 95.7 trillion VND (4.26 billion USD).

As for new investments, SCIC focused its investment resources and obtained positive turns last year. SCIC's total investment disbursement in 2015 was more than 8 trillion VND (356.7 million USD).

Certain large-scale projects became operational after a long period of preparation, including VTV Tower, a joint venture between Vietnam Television and SCIC, and some others being considered for investment such as the cooperation initiative with the National Hospital of Pediatrics and the industry-scale vaccinations production project.

Direction for 2016

The corporation will continue its restructuring initiatives and accelerate divestment from enterprises that do not need to be kept by the Government, following the timeline and instructions of the Government and the Prime Minister.

The corporation will also increase investments such as by participating in initial public offerings of economic groups, State-owned corporations and enterprises. It will continue to examine the purchase of non-score investments of economic groups and State corporations in some banks and research opportunities in projects purchases and company mergers and acquisitions.

An SCIC report released recently showed that the corporation's business indicators in 2015 increased by 36 percent, compared with the plan and 45 percent higher than that of 2014.

Its pre-tax profits reached more than 8.4 trillion VND (374.5 million USD), exceeding the plan by 36 percent, recording a 46 percent increase over 2014. Its return on equity was 25.6 percent, which was a 1.6–time increase against its yearly plan.

SCIC, established in 2005, was seen as a bold measure by the Government during the height of the economic and SOE reforms that aimed to enhance the efficiency of State capital utilisation.

SCIC's primary objectives are to represent state capital interests in enterprises and to invest in key sectors and essential industries with a view to strengthening the dominant role of the state sector, while respecting market rules. It is currently managing many enterprises that are operating in various sectors, such as financial services, energy, manufacturing and telecommunications, besides transportation, consumer products, healthcare and information technology.-VNA