The Vietnam Television Cable Corporation (VTVCab) will cancel its initial public offering (IPO) on April 17 as only one investor registered to attend the auction by the end of April 10, 2018 (Photo VTVCab) Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The Vietnam TelevisionCable Corporation (VTVCab) will cancel its initial public offering (IPO) onApril 17 as only one investor registered to attend the auction by the end ofApril 10, 2018 – the deadline for investors to sign up for the IPO.
The HanoiStock Exchange (HNX) said on April 12 that according to regulations, VTVCab iseligible to cancel an IPO as scheduled.
At the end of March, the State-owned televisioncompany announced it would put more than 42.2 million shares or 47.84 percentof the firm’s capital up for sale in an IPO at the starting price of 140,900VND (6.26 USD) per share.
If the IPO of VTVCab were successful, theGovernment could earn nearly 6 trillion VND (264.2 million USD) from the saleand the value of the company would reach 12.4 trillion VND.
Under its equitisation plan, which was approved bythe Prime Minister in January 2016, VTV Cab will have charter capital of 884billion VND (39.3 million USD), with the Government reducing its ownership to51 percent, or more than 45 million shares.
The total value of the company as of December 31,2015, was more than 7.9 trillion VND (351 million USD), with the Governmentholding a stake of more than 80 percent.
More than 1 million shares (1.16 percent of thecapital) will be sold to the pay TV provider’s current employees at cheapprices.
According to local media, the IPO of VTVCab hasproven unattractive to investors as the starting price level for the shareauction was considered higher than the firm’s actual performance and businessconditions merited.
Duringthe 2014-16 period, VTVCab posted steady growth in its total revenue, but itspost-tax profit showed some decline.
In addition, VTVCab has not become a dominantplayer in the local television market as its revenue and profit are beingoutpaced by the Saigon Cable Television (SCTV).
In addition, VTVCab has recently sparked acontroversy in the pay TV market after it removed a number of “hot”channels from its package and replaced them with others considered less popularto Vietnamese viewers.
The incident is expected to reduce the number ofVTVCab customers as a number of them have already switched to other pay-TVproviders. –VNS/VNA
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