HANOI: State-owned electronics and IT firm Hanel Co Ltd has been given permission to sell a 61 per cent stake to strategic investors in an equitisation expected within this year.
This proposal was approved by Deputy Prime Minister Vu Van Ninh while the Ha Noi People’s Committee is responsible for selecting suitable investors, either foreign or domestic.
The Hanel Co Ltd, whose businesses span from the electronics and IT sectors to real estate, auxiliary industry and logistics with 37 affiliated companies, will have charter capital of VND1.93 trillion (US$85.8 million) after the initial public offering (IPO).
According to the approved plan, Hanel will auction 9.94 per cent of the capital to the public while state ownership will account for 29 per cent. Strategic investors will be allowed to buy 61 per cent while its employees will be offered 0.06 per cent. “Equitisation is a historic turning-point of Hanel,” Nguyen Quoc Binh, Hanel’s chairman cum CEO, was quoted as saying to the financial website baodautu.vn.
Binh said equitisation was a big challenge but also offered a chance to renovate the company as well as reinforce human resources and expand its business strategy. Hanel is known as the investor of the Ha Noi-based Daewoo hotel after acquiring 70 per cent of the hotel’s capital in 2012 after the parent Korean firm Daewoo went bankrupt.
The 30-year-old company was the first Vietnamese enterprise to introduce the made-in-Vietnam Hanel TV. It has also been a pioneer in developing auxiliary industry to support the development of the electronics sector in the country. To develop its brand name to investors before the IPO, the Ha Noi-based firm has deployed many big projects this year.
Of note, it has been picked up to provide the information technology system to serve the implementation of the national single window mechanism in the Ministry of Transport. The mechanism, which helps administrative reform towards an e-government, later will connect to other ministries including Industry and Trade, Finance, Health and Agriculture and Rural Development. It is also the leading investor in a VND11 trillion ($488.9 million) tech park project in Ha Noi.
Binh said the company was seeking long-term investors to research and develop IT applications and automation engineering in key sectors of the domestic economy. In particular, Hanel was focusing on biotechnology, cybernetics and nanotechnology. According to the information on the company’s website, Hanel’s annual revenues reach around VND7 trillion ($311 million).
