HANOI: PetroVietnam Gas Joint Stock Corporation (GAS) will offload all its shares in the Southeast Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SeABank).
According to the board of directors’ resolution, GAS will auction more than 8.226 million shares, or a 1.505 per cent stake, for a starting price of VND10,167(45 US cents) each. The auction, scheduled for the last quarter of 2015, is part of the restructuring plan of the corporation.
GAS, the country’s largest corporation of its kind in Viet Nam, earned VND14 trillion ($622.2 million) in revenue and VND2.325 trillion ($103.33 million) in net profit in the third quarter this year.
GAS, also known as the most profitable stock in the market with a capital of $8 billion, unveiled a plan in October to invest in gas projects overseas in 2020, to ensure that Viet Nam gets five billion to 10 billion cubic metres of gas a year from 2025 to meet domestic demand.
The overseas gas projects are part of a development plan of GAS till 2025, with a vision towards 2035. The energy firm aims to become the fourth largest firm in Southeast Asia in 2025 in terms of gas output, and join a list of strong gas corporations in Asia with total assets worth VND128 trillion ($5.71 billion), compared to the current VND53 trillion ($2.37 billion).
GAS aims for total gas output of nearly 60 billion cubic metres in the 2016-2020 period, and 300 billion cubic metres in the 2016-2035 period.
On November 20, each share of GAS closed at VND43,500 ($1.93) on the HCM Stock Exchange. Meanwhile, the Ha Noi-based SEaBank plans to earn VND1.25 trillion ($55.5 million) in net interest revenue, and between VND100 billion ($4.4 million) and VND110 billion ($4.8 million) in after-tax profits in 2015, an increase of 20 per cent compared with 2014.
The bank also aims to earn VND1.4 trillion ($62.2 million) in net interest revenue and between VND100 billion ($4.4 million) and VND130 billion ($5.7 million) in after-tax profit in 2016.
